Spears & Imes LLP

Number of partners: 5

Number of lawyers: 9

Languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin 

Firm Overview:  

Spears & Imes LLP devotes its practice to complex litigation and investigation work in the areas of civil litigation, white collar criminal defense, and regulatory matters including securities enforcement. The firm’s lawyers have tried scores of civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts and represented clients in hearings, arbitrations, and mediations across the country. The firm also helps clients achieve favorable resolutions without trial. Spears & Imes’ lawyers have decades of experience defending institutions and individuals against governmental and regulatory authorities, including the US Department of Justice, state District Attorney Offices, state Attorney General Offices, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, often in high-profile matters involving challenging legal issues. The firm’s lawyers also represent preeminent domestic and international financial institutions and other entities (both as plaintiffs and defendants) in complex civil lawsuits involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Main Areas of Practice: 

- Complex Civil Litigation

- White Collar Criminal Defense

- Securities Enforcement

- Appeals

- Parallel Proceedings

Complex Civil Litigation:  

Spears & Imes has extensive experience in complex civil litigation, including handling cases through discovery, trial, and appeal. The firm represents institutions and individuals, as plaintiffs and defendants, in international civil cases involving complex financial matters and international legal issues. The firm has experience in every stage of civil proceedings, including drafting pleadings, motion practice, fact discovery, expert discovery, trial, post-trial briefing, and appeal.

White Collar Criminal Defense:  

Spears & Imes defends individuals in all phases of federal and state white collar criminal proceedings involving a wide array of charges based on different federal and state statutes, including investigations with parallel domestic and foreign civil, criminal and regulatory proceedings. The firm also conducts internal investigations for institutional clients and represents individual clients in internal investigations. Partners David Spears, Linda Imes, and Max Nicholas served as Assistant United States Attorneys in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where they were immersed in federal criminal practice. The firm specializes in persuading prosecutors not to bring criminal charges against its clients. When representing clients under indictment, the firm brings its extensive trial experience to bear. The firm also represents clients in federal sentencing proceedings, and the firm’s lawyers have broad experience in the pre-sentencing process, including negotiating plea agreements and preparing persuasive sentencing memoranda. The firm has achieved favorable results for clients who elected to accept plea agreements instead of going to trial.

Securities Enforcement:  

Spears & Imes has broad experience defending individuals and institutions in all phases of investigations by and proceedings before the SEC and FINRA, including trying cases in administrative proceedings before these regulators. Early in his career, partner David Spears worked as a Trial Attorney and Deputy Chief Trial Attorney in the Enforcement Division of the SEC. While many of the firm’s representations in the securities enforcement area have been concluded with no action being taken by the regulator and no public allegations of wrongdoing, the firm’s lawyers have also represented clients in trials in US District Courts in cases brought by the SEC, and in administrative hearings before the SEC and FINRA.

Appeals: 

Spears & Imes has an active and varied appellate practice. Its lawyers have extensive experience briefing and arguing appeals in civil and criminal cases in federal and state appellate courts. Partner Linda Imes is a former Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Parallel Proceedings: 

The lawyers at Spears & Imes are expert at defending institutions and individuals in parallel proceedings, where criminal investigations, regulatory inquiries, and civil lawsuits progress simultaneously or in quick succession against an institution or an individual. While many law firms are experienced in dealing with one or two of these multiple practice areas, very few firms have Spears & Imes’ knowledge and skill dealing with all three of these areas.

Clients:  

Spears & Imes’ clients include individuals employed in the securities and financial industries, as well as sophisticated institutions such as insurance companies, banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, real estate ventures, and other. The firm represents many individuals and institutions in grand jury investigations, internal investigations, and regulatory inquiries where the representation and the client’s identity are not a matter of public record. The lawyers at Spears & Imes have represented clients from around the globe (including Canada, the Cayman Islands, China, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Honduras, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Oman, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) — as well as across the United States — in various investigations and formal proceedings.