Kevin Metz, partner in Latham & Watkins’ Washington, D.C. office, has extensive experience representing companies, boards of directors, senior officers, and accounting firms in commercial litigation, securities class actions, derivative litigation, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement actions.
Mr. Metz advises clients on securities and corporate governance litigation, complex commercial litigation, and white collar defense and investigations. His significant clients have included Berkeley Heartlab, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Checkpoint Systems, DG Fastchannel, Ernst & Young, K12 Inc., KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Proquest, Sizmek, Syneos Health, TechnipFMC LLP, the University of Maryland Medical System, Weatherford International, Willbros Group, and Xerium Technologies.
Mr. Metz has represented clients in state and federal court and before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and other regulatory bodies, in matters involving financial restatements, accounting problems, disclosure requirements, insider trading, professional liability, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and other issues. He has conducted numerous management and audit committee investigations and has successfully defended an auditor in a trial on charges brought by the SEC Division of Enforcement.
In 2004, Mr. Metz served as a deputy finance director for the John Kerry presidential campaign, in which he was responsible for fundraising in San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest. At Latham, he advises clients on compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act, lobbying rules and federal gift rules, including rules on corporate political activity, PAC formation, and campaign contributions.
He currently serves as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Business Litigation subcommittee on Class Action and Derivative Litigation, and since 2012, he has been a lead editor of the Class Action chapter of the ABA’s Recent Developments in Business Litigation. He has also spoken and written frequently on topics involving corporate governance. He has been a member of the firm’s Recruiting and Pro Bono Committees and, since 2010, the firm’s Ethics Committee.
Mr. Metz maintains an active public-service practice. In 2020, he led a group of Latham attorneys who challenged the living conditions at a Washington, D.C. halfway house at the start of the pandemic, resulting in the federal Bureau of Prisons ending its contract with the facility. He has also represented construction workers in a collective action over unpaid wages and overtime, an 8-year-old boy and 13-year old girl in immigration court, and the anti-human trafficking organization Polaris.
Mr. Metz is the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, a member of the Boards of Directors of Ayuda, Inc. and the Burgundy Farm Country Day School, and serves on the Vestry of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia. He joined Latham in 2000 following a judicial clerkship for Judge Michael S. Kanne on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to law school, he spent several years as a newspaper reporter for The Tampa Tribune, where he wrote about Florida politics and the governor's office.
Mr. Metz has extensive experience representing companies, officers, directors, and accounting firms in all types of corporate governance, securities, and complex commercial litigation and investigations. Select matters include:
The firm was recognized by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for its pro bono efforts in investigating the conditions at a high-security federal prison in Illinois.
Firm was honored for its innovative approaches to pro bono client service.
The firm was honored for its innovative approaches to pro bono client service.