C. Wallace DeWitt

C. WALLACE DEWITT counsels foreign and domestic financial institutions as to a variety of securities regulatory and public policy matters, with a particular focus on the private wealth industry and the cross-border marketing of investment services and financial products. He represents clients before U.S. federal and state financial regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He regularly conducts and oversees multijurisdictional surveys of regulations applicable to the cross-border solicitation and provision of securities, banking, and derivatives products and services.

He previously was counsel in the financial services regulatory group at a global law firm, where he focused on securities regulation and capital markets. He handled a variety of matters, including surveys of solicitation and provision of cross-border private wealth services by multiple U.S. and foreign financial institutions in dozens of global jurisdictions.

He formerly served as Senior Counsel to SEC Acting Chairman and Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar and as law clerk to the Hon. Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He speaks and reads eight languages at various levels of fluency.

• A survey of securities regulations applicable to the offer of employee stock option plan administration services by a U.S. broker-dealer to its global corporate customers in more than 150 jurisdictions.
• A rolling survey of shareholder disclosure regulations applicable to a U.S. institutional investor in more than 100 jurisdictions.
• National Association of Private Fund Managers et al. v. Securities and Exchange Commission (4:24-cv-00250-O) (N.D. Texas). — Brief in support of amicus in successful challenge of SEC dealer definition rule.
• National Association of Private Fund Managers, et al. v. Securities and Exchange Commission (23-60626) (5th Cir.). — Brief in support of amicus in challenge of SEC securities lending and short-sale disclosure rules.
• National Association of Private Fund Managers et al. v. Securities and Exchange Commission (23-60471) (5th Cir.). — Brief in support of amicus in successful challenge of SEC private funds rule.
• Halliburton Co. and David Lesar v. Erica P. John Fund., FKA Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund, Inc. (13-317) (U.S. Supreme Court). — Amicus brief in support of petitioners in securities litigation asserting the economic and competitive effects on U.S. capital markets of the “fraud-on-the-market” presumption of reliance adopted in Basic v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224 (1988).

The above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.