Michael L Spafford

Michael Spafford is a partner in the Investigations & White Collar Defense practice at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

Michael’s practice focuses on white-collar criminal defense, government investigations, regulatory enforcement, internal investigations and related litigation. He has represented financial institutions, funds and other companies, as well as individual clients in numerous high-profile government investigations and parallel litigation involving alleged violations of the federal securities, commodities and banking laws, price fixing and collusion, fraud and manipulation, tax, accounting, trading offenses and the False Claims Act. Michael frequently represents clients before the DOJ, SEC, CFTC, FERC, FTC and other federal and state government authorities.

Michael regularly advises clients on regulatory and compliance issues associated with financial instruments and trading operations. Michael currently serves as the chair of the ABA Business Law Section Committee on Derivatives and Futures Law. He previously served as the chair of the ABA Subcommittee on Innovative Digitized Products and Processes, including virtual currencies and blockchain, and co-authored the ABA White Paper on Digital and Digitized Assets: Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues. Michael is a contributor to the firm’s Derivatives Download newsletter.

Duke University School of Law, J.D.

State University of New York at Binghamton, B.A.