
Robert Pommer
Partner
+1.202.416.6808
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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Recent enforcement actions highlight the increased regulatory scrutiny that private funds may face with respect to internal cybersecurity protocols and responses to cyber-crimes and cyber incidents under new and updated cybersecurity laws. … Continue Reading
As IPOs and other traditional paths to liquidity for private assets have become more challenging, GP-led secondary transactions have emerged as a powerful and popular tool across closed-end private funds, leading to explosive growth over the last five years. And while macro factors influence their prevalence year over year, these transactions remain broadly popular across the … Continue Reading
Go to any private equity event in the last 12 months, and “energy transition” will have been discussed, meaning the shift in energy production away from fossil‑based systems to low or zero carbon ones. As fund managers continue to raise funds focused on investments in this sector, we see no reason for this trend to … Continue Reading
It’s a pattern we often see in boom-and-bust cycles—disputes rising in the period after a wave crests. SPAC deal volume hit an unprecedented high in 2021, but then slowed down in 2022 alongside IPOs. However, the fallout from the SPAC wave will continue to unfold this year, generating increased regulatory attention and a growing number of … Continue Reading
The SEC’s Enforcement Division is conducting a sweep investigation of large investment advisers regarding their employees’ use of “off-channel” communications. The sweep, which has been widely reported in the press, focuses on text messages from personal phones, personal email, WhatsApp and other platforms not typically captured or monitored by advisers. The sweep is causing considerable … Continue Reading
Implications of SEC attempt to curb indemnification for private fund managers The SEC spent 2022 making multiple and sweeping proposals to amend rules under the Advisers Act, many of which have the ability to significantly re-shape market standards for private funds. Here, we focus on the SEC’s proposal to undo a common protection for private … Continue Reading
Amid rising interest rates, tightening credit markets, geopolitical concerns in Europe and Asia, stubborn inflation and continuing supply chain issues, there is a growing sense of economic uncertainty. This uncertainty will no doubt increase the frequency of valuation disputes in the year ahead. We generally see valuation disputes spring from four primary sources: Valuation disputes … Continue Reading
On March 15, 2023 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released its proposal to amend Regulation S-P: Privacy of Consumer Financial Information and Safeguarding Customer Information, while simultaneously issuing two additional cybersecurity-related rule proposals[1] and re-opening the comment period for its previously-proposed cybersecurity risk management rule released in February 2022.[2] This set of sweeping reforms … Continue Reading
Crypto firm bankruptcies and resulting disruption in the crypto ecosystem will continue to exacerbate liquidity and regulatory concerns in this space. Signs of contagion are evident as prices of almost every cryptocurrency type have halved in recent months. Since all participants supporting the crypto ecosystem are at risk, managing that risk is critical.… Continue Reading
Everything, everywhere, all at once is our risk thesis for 2023, but one must not forget about concentration risk. This issue has rocketed up diligence agendas for LPs and GPs alike as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank proved it really was the bank for venture capital.The entry of SVB into receivership on March 10, 2023 highlighted just … Continue Reading
Everything, everywhere, all at once, as a descriptor, captures the litigation and regulatory risks for the asset management industry in 2023. Every corner of the market faces greater risks than at any time since 2008. After years of breakneck growth fueled by low interest rates and a largely laissez faire regulatory regime, significant change is … Continue Reading