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Robert Pommer

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Robert W. Pommer III is a partner in the Litigation Department and a member of Proskauer's Securities Litigation, White Collar Defense & Investigations groups and the Asset Management Litigation team.

Bob’s practice focuses on a broad range of securities-related enforcement and compliance issues. He represents private fund managers, financial institutions, public companies, and their senior executives in enforcement investigations and litigation conducted by the SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other governmental entities and financial services regulators. He also conducts internal investigations and counsels investment advisers and public companies on regulatory compliance, corporate governance and other SEC-related issues.

Prior to his career in private practice, Bob served as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement for nine years. While there, he investigated and litigated several high-profile cases involving complex financial fraud and audit failures. Bob also worked on enforcement actions involving insider trading, investment adviser and broker-dealer issues, market manipulation and other violations of the federal securities laws.

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With Paul Atkins as the new SEC Chair, the agency’s priorities have shifted away from many of the aggressive policies of former Chair Gensler. The first four months of the Republican controlled SEC saw a dramatic shift in the approach to crypto with the dismissal or pause of major litigation, the termination of several longstanding investigations, the recission of accounting guidance regarding the safeguarding of crypto assets and the establishment of a new task force to help formulate the regulatory approach to crypto going forward. With the enforcement program under a new SEC undergoing significant changes, there will likely be a return to more traditional enforcement cases with greater emphasis on egregious conduct involving pecuniary gain or investor harm, moving away from “pushing the envelope” cases. Enforcement sweeps involving off-channel communications, late filings and other “broken windows” initiatives are expected to fall by the wayside. Regulation by enforcement could be replaced by increased interaction with the Staff, formal or informal guidance or lighter-touch rulemaking.

Over the past year, regulatory scrutiny of the credit markets has intensified, with the SEC investigating the potential use of material nonpublic information (“MNPI”) relating to credit instruments. The SEC brought a number of enforcement actions against investment advisers involving the failure to maintain and enforce written MNPI policies involving trading in distressed debt and collateralized loan obligations, even in the absence of insider trading claims. We anticipate that these investigations of trading in private credit instruments and related MNPI policies will continue, as SEC enforcement staff has increased their focus on these markets. 

With ESG regulation now well embedded across all major jurisdictions, the trend we see for 2025 is about increasingly sophisticated triangulation by private fund managers between the regimes that apply by default (such as mandatory corporate sustainability reporting), those that apply by choice (such as becoming an Article 8 fund within the meaning of the EU’s SFDR or the new for 2024 ESMA ESG Fund Name Guidelines – see summary here) and those that apply by third party request or expectation (such as reporting obligations within side letters). As regimes evolve, the ESG-approach of any fund once identified, chosen and defined must also take into account tracking developments and monitoring compliance.

Confession: writing this in May 2025, we cannot predict with confidence what the rest of 2025 will bring. The year has already seen four months of change and upheaval – political, regulatory, and economic. The new US administration has touted a business-friendly regulatory environment, with actual and promised tax cuts and deregulation. However, geopolitical tensions, tariff trade wars and political instability have introduced new risks and created a climate of extreme unpredictability. We should expect 2025 to hold several surprises still, whether that is a breakout of peace or new political themes obtaining prominence in one or more jurisdictions.

Paul Atkins, the nominee for SEC Chair, recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee in a hearing that covered how he could reshape the agency’s priorities. The alert below examines Atkins’ testimony on issues affecting the funds industry, including the rulemaking agenda, disclosure practices, cryptocurrency, and other key issues. We…

As reported today, Vice President Harris has announced Tim Walz, the sitting governor of Minnesota, as her running mate. This announcement is particularly significant for investment advisers due to the Advisers Act Political Contributions Rule, otherwise known as the “pay-to-play” rule.

On June 14, 2024, the SEC announced an enforcement action settlement with a Pennsylvania-based hedge fund manager for violating the Marketing Rule under the Investment Advisers Act. The SEC found that the adviser had misled investors by advertising a hedge fund’s investment performance based on the investment performance of a…

As we reach the midpoint of 2024, the SEC’s enforcement actions continue to shape the private funds industry. From the continuing off-channel recordkeeping sweep to heightened scrutiny on AI claims, fiduciary obligations of fund managers, and insider trading, the SEC is as vigilant as ever. Compounding these efforts are significant…