Gregory Baker

Gregory Baker is a Partner in the firm’s Litigation department and Chair of its Securities Enforcement & Litigation group. He is also a member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations group. A former Senior Counsel for the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Enforcement Division with extensive experience investigating and litigating securities laws violations, Mr. Baker provides strategic advice to individuals and businesses in financial services and other industries. He serves as a key advisor on investigations and litigation strategy and applies his firsthand knowledge of the SEC to help clients manage risk and achieve positive outcomes in matters led by financial regulators. Mr. Baker was recognized by JD Supra's Readers' Choice Awards as one of the top ten authors in the Securities category in 2023.

Mr. Baker served for five years in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, most recently as a member of the Asset Management Unit, where he managed investigations and litigations concerning investment advisors, hedge funds, private equity funds, and mutual funds. His matters involved issues such as hedge fund valuations, private equity fee disclosures, compliance violations, market manipulation, performance advertising, insider trading, derivative arbitrage, and accounting. He has worked extensively with the DOJ, FBI, FINRA, IRS, and other federal agencies in his investigations. He received four Directors’ Awards from the Division of Enforcement in recognition of his outstanding achievements in investigative work.

Mr. Baker’s notable enforcement actions included the fraudulent mismarking of mortgage-backed securities by principals and traders at a registered investment advisor and a fraudulent scheme by certain company insiders to take undisclosed control of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of publicly traded stock of a Fortune 500 company, both of which led to parallel criminal actions brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He also investigated and filed the first enforcement action brought by the SEC against a robo-advisor in a matter alleging violations of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

Before joining the public sector, Mr. Baker spent over seven years in private practice at two AmLaw 50 firms, where he focused on a broad range of matters for financial institutions and corporations, including securities class action lawsuits, complex contract disputes, internal investigations, employment disputes, and bankruptcy adversary proceedings. Representing both plaintiffs and defendants, Mr. Baker has experience in structured products litigation, antitrust matters, complex contractual disputes, intellectual property disputes, and criminal defense matters. Prior to joining Patterson Belknap, he returned to private practice at a national law firm where he focused on securities litigation and white collar criminal defense and investigations.

He previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Walls of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.