Latham Partners Named to Securities Docket’s 2025 Enforcement Elite and Hall of Fame Lists

Securities Docket has named White Collar Defense & Investigations partners Marc Berger, Chris Garcia, Brian Kowalski, and John Sikora to its 2025 Enforcement Elite list, and retired partner Bill Baker was inducted into the 2025 Enforcement Hall of Fame at Securities Docket’s Enforcement Forum in Washington, D.C.

Securities Docket’s 2025 Enforcement Elite list honors the best securities enforcement defense counsel in the industry, recognizing professionals who are essential to have on speed-dial for critical SEC enforcement matters. The selection is guided by the question, "Who would you hire if you, your company, or a family member was faced with an important SEC enforcement matter?"

Four Latham partners were included in this year’s Enforcement Elite list:

• Marc Berger, Global Co-Chair of Latham’s White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice, represents companies, boards, financial institutions, asset managers, and senior executives on the full spectrum of regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters. Marc’s career includes notable leadership roles at the SEC and the DOJ, including Acting Director and Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office (NYRO), and Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
• Chris Garcia advises and defends clients in their highest-stakes regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters and disputes. Chris helps public and private companies, boards of directors, executives, broker-dealers, and investment advisers navigate federal and state securities enforcement and criminal investigations and actions, internal investigations, securities class actions, Delaware litigation, corporate governance issues, and regulatory compliance. In connection with his work, Chris leverages his extensive experience as a federal prosecutor, including as Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
• Former Global Vice Chair of the Litigation & Trial Department Brian Kowalski has spent 20 years defending public companies, investment firms, auditors, and individuals in SEC enforcement matters, conducting internal investigations, and advising clients on complex compliance issues, including in connection with strategic transactions.
• John Sikora leverages his extensive government experience with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to represent public companies, fund managers, investment advisers, and financial services firms in their most critical investigations and disputes. Prior to joining Latham, he was an Assistant Director in the Chicago Regional Office and in the Asset Management Unit of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, a national specialized unit that focuses on misconduct by investment advisers, investment companies, and private funds.

Securities Docket’s Enforcement Hall of Fame list highlights lawyers who have made the most extraordinary contributions to, and impact upon, the field of securities enforcement over their lifetimes. Members of the Enforcement Hall of Fame must be lawyers with at least 35 years of legal or other professional experience following law school, including significant experience working at the SEC. This year, Bill Baker was one of ten members to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, which is a testament to his extraordinary contributions and impact in the field of securities enforcement. Bill retired from Latham in December 2024. He handled a broad range of business regulatory and corporate governance matters, including representing corporations, auditing and other professional firms, investment banks, and other financial institutions in US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory enforcement proceedings.  Before joining Latham, he spent 15 years at the SEC in several roles, including Associate Director of the Division of Enforcement.