Pravin B. Rao

Informed by his experience with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Pravin Rao represents companies, boards, and senior executives in high-stakes criminal and regulatory matters. These include cross-border government inquiries and proceedings, internal investigations, cybersecurity matters, and other litigation. He assists clients in inquiries by the DOJ, SEC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), state attorney general offices, and other governmental and self-regulatory agencies.

Pravin helps clients with issues related to accounting and financial fraud, foreign and domestic bribery and corruption, and Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions. He also handles matters involving money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, insider trading and other securities fraud, cyber breaches, ransomware attacks, data privacy, tax fraud, the False Claims Act, and related civil litigation.

Pravin was chosen by the DOJ and SEC for a multiyear appointment as a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) monitor of a large multinational corporation, evaluating and testing its anti-corruption compliance program—one of only 36 such appointments in the last decade. He has also served as a court-appointed examiner in a federal bankruptcy proceeding where he was tasked with investigating a company's pension program. In his role as an assistant U.S. attorney, Pravin supervised and developed strategies in investigations that targeted violations of federal criminal laws. He conducted parallel investigations with civil regulatory agencies in complex cases involving large publicly traded companies, officers and directors, broker-dealers, investment advisors, and hedge funds. He also first-chaired numerous jury trials and argued appeals in both federal and state courts.

Previously, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois (2003-2007); Branch Chief, Division of Enforcement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1999-2003); Assistant State’s Attorney, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (1995-1999).

University of Illinois College of Law, JD (1995)

Olin School -Washington University, MBA, Finance (1989)

University of Michigan BS, Mathematics (1987)