Jacobson Law P.A. has extensive experience conducting and overseeing large- and small-scale internal investigations for broker-dealers, registered investment advisors, family offices, and other financial companies and institutions.

If your firm is aware of an actual or potential issue regarding its business, an internal investigation can be a useful tool for understanding the scope of that issue and how it might expose your firm to any potential civil and regulatory liability. Similarly, if a customer or regulator has made specific allegations about your firm’s practices, an internal investigation is often an important first step towards preparing an effective strategy to respond to and defend those allegations.

Every internal investigation is different. To be productive, an investigation must be carefully thought out beforehand and designed to address the particular issue or concern under investigation. Typically, an investigation will involve meeting with the firm’s management to identify and define the matter at issue, collecting and reviewing all of the relevant documents and electronic records, interviewing all of the relevant individuals, researching how the relevant laws, rules, and regulations might apply to the facts that are uncovered, presenting the findings to the firm, and developing a strategy to resolve any issues that are uncovered.

Because it is impossible to know what an investigation might uncover before it is over, it is important always to take appropriate measures to shield the investigation and any potential findings with the reasonable protections afforded by the attorney-client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine, and any other applicable privileges. In some circumstances, however, even those protections might not be sufficient — in which case a decision will have to be made whether to reduce the investigation’s findings and conclusions to a written report (which could potentially be obtained by a regulator or opponent in litigation) or whether they should only be presented to the firm orally.

If your firm needs to conduct an internal investigation, contact Jacobson Law P.A. to discuss the specific facts of your case.