Fred Block, a former supervisory trial counsel in the Enforcement Division of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, focuses on securities enforcement and government investigations, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation. He handles all phases of complex federal and state court litigation and regularly obtains favorable pretrial, trial, and arbitration results for publicly held corporations, private equity funds, and other financial firm clients. At the SEC, Fred served as a key member of the management team responsible for counseling approximately 120 trial attorneys nationwide on the assessment of the evidentiary record, litigation strategies, settlement negotiations, and trial preparation.
Fred has a deep background in investigations and litigation involving securities law violations. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, he was at the SEC’s Enforcement Division as a supervisory trial counsel in the Home Office Trial Unit. There he managed a team of trial attorneys while overseeing numerous matters related to unregistered offerings, insider trading, market manipulation and antifraud violations involving issuers, broker dealers, and investment advisers. In his role, Fred first-chaired trials and administrative proceedings for the SEC and handled all aspects of litigation brought by the SEC, including discovery, experts, evidentiary hearings, and dispositive motions. Fred regularly advised the SEC’s director of enforcement and SEC commissioners on litigation risk and strategy.
Prior to joining the SEC, Fred was a partner at another major law firm, where he represented clients in complex commercial litigation in courts throughout the country.