Randall Lee

Practice Areas

Randall is a widely recognized litigator and first-chair trial lawyer with over 30 years of experience in both government and the private sector.

Randall represents public and private companies, financial institutions, asset management firms, boards of directors, audit committees, special committees and executives in investigations by the SEC, the US Department of Justice and other governmental agencies, as well as in internal investigations of potential misconduct around the world. He regularly handles investigations involving accounting and disclosure issues, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), insider trading and regulations governing investment advisers and broker-dealers. Randall also counsels clients on compliance and corporate governance matters.

Randall’s clients benefit from his significant first-chair trial experience, which includes a victory over the SEC on behalf of the former CEO and CFO of Thornburg Mortgage, once the nation’s second largest independent mortgage company. After a jury cleared Randall’s clients on half the charges, the SEC dismissed all remaining claims, resulting in complete vindication for his clients. The National Law Journal selected him as a 2017 Winning Litigator for this victory, as one of a select few lawyers who achieved major wins in high-stakes cases.

Career

Randall is a former Regional Director for the Pacific Region of the SEC (2001-2007), where he was the SEC’s top official in nine western states, including California. Randall oversaw the SEC’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, which were responsible for investigating and prosecuting securities law violations and conducting compliance inspections of broker-dealers, investment advisers, and mutual funds. The first Asian American to head an SEC regional office, Randall led numerous high-profile SEC enforcement actions during some of the most active years in the agency’s history and managed a staff of approximately 175 attorneys, accountants, compliance examiners and support personnel.

Previously, Randall was an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the Central District of California (1994-2001), where he focused on the prosecution of complex financial crimes. He ultimately became Deputy Chief of the Major Frauds Section in the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

He led and supervised grand jury investigations, tried numerous cases to a jury, and briefed and argued appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Randall received an FBI Director’s Award for his investigation and prosecution of the former CEO of a California bank, who together with another executive and an outside lawyer conspired to defraud the bank out of millions of dollars and then laundered the proceeds through shell company accounts around the world. The three defendants were convicted of all counts after a five-week jury trial.

Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Randall was a transactional lawyer focusing on mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and general corporate matters. He began his career as an associate at Bankers Trust Company in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he completed a year-long management training program and ranked first in his class.

Personal

Randall earned his JD from UC Berkeley School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor on the California Law Review. He then clerked for the Honorable James L. Buckley on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.