Lawyers

Stephanie G. Wheeler is a partner in the Firm’s Litigation Group. Prior to joining S&C in 1994, she clerked for the Honorable John C. Lifland of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (1993-1994). Ms. Wheeler has a broad litigation practice that focuses on white-collar and regulatory investigations and civil litigation.

Ms. Wheeler’s civil litigation practice focuses on complex securities, antitrust, intellectual property and commercial litigation. She also has extensive experience representing clients in white collar and regulatory investigations before the Department of Justice, the SEC, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Department of Financial Services, FINRA, the NYAG and numerous other state attorneys general, and foreign bank regulators. Ms. Wheeler is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Women in the Legal Profession: White Collar Crime Subcommittee.

SELECTED REPRESENTATIONS

Selected Cases: Securities

• Represented Goldman Sachs in multiple civil litigations relating to residential mortgage-backed securities.
• Obtained for The Boeing Company a well-publicized dismissal of a putative securities fraud class action related to delays in the first flight of the company’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
• Represented Goldman Sachs in obtaining dismissal of several securities class actions relating to alleged conflicts of interest between equity research and investment banking.
• Represented the board of directors of JPMorgan Chase in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, achieving affirmance of the dismissal of a shareholder derivative action that alleged breach of fiduciary duty relating to Enron, Worldcom, IPO allocations, alleged research analyst conflicts of interest, mutual fund market timing and other regulatory investigations that resulted in monetary settlements.
• Represented Furniture Brands in a shareholder derivative action related to executive compensation issues.
• Represented Vodafone in a putative securities class action relating to goodwill writedowns in Vodafone’s financial statements. Obtained dismissals of plaintiffs’ first and second amended class action complaints, and settled the litigation on terms favorable to Vodafone.
• Represented KPMG UK in obtaining dismissal of securities fraud claims relating to the audited financial statements of Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. 

Selected Cases: Investigations

• Represented Goldman Sachs in reaching coordinated resolutions in multiple criminal and regulatory investigations in jurisdictions around the world relating to an alleged multi-billion dollar money laundering and corruption scheme involving the Malaysia sovereign development company, 1MDB, and senior public officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, including a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ and resolutions with the government of Malaysia, the SEC, Federal Reserve, New York DFS, and regulators in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore.   
• ​Represented Goldman Sachs in global settlement of investigations led by DOJ and NYAG relating to residential mortgage-backed securities.
• Represented a financial institution in responding to material examination findings by the Federal Reserve Bank.
• Represented a financial institution in an internal investigation relating to inadvertent disclosure of Confidential Supervisory Information.
• Represented a bank in an SEC investigation relating to auto loan securitizations.
• Represented Goldman Sachs in global settlement of industry-wide investigations relating to sales of auction rate securities.
• Represented Goldman Sachs in a global settlement of industry-wide investigations into alleged conflicts of interest between equity research and investment banking.
• Represented companies in several insider trading investigations.
• Represented a financial institution that received TARP funds in connection with numerous inquiries from various government agencies, SIGTARP and Congress concerning executive compensation and bonuses.
• Representing a financial institution in U.S. Attorney’s Office investigation relating to mortgage foreclosures. 
• Represented a financial institution in connection with an inquiry by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations relating to tax shelter transactions.
• Lead counsel to a clearing broker in market timing investigations by the SEC, NASD and the New York Attorney General.
• Represented a prominent law firm in an investigation brought by Federal Reserve Bank and FDIC for alleged false statements made in connection with a client’s regulatory applications.

Selected Cases: Antitrust

• Served as a trial lawyer defending Microsoft Corporation in the landmark antitrust trials brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and 19 states and the District of Columbia from 1998 to 2002. Also represented Microsoft in a related antitrust investigation before the European Commission.
• Represented Wachovia and Wells Fargo in an MDL action alleging a conspiracy to fix prices of municipal derivative transactions.
• Represented Goldman Sachs in a putative class action pending against the leading private equity firms alleging a conspiracy to suppress the prices paid for companies being taken private in leveraged buyout transactions.