Christopher L. Garcia

Christopher Garcia is Co-Head of Weil’s global White Collar Defense, Regulatory and Investigations practice, where he focuses on defending companies and individuals in connection with regulatory and criminal investigations, conducting internal investigations, and litigating securities class actions in state and federal courts across the U.S.

He also counsels boards of directors, executives, broker-dealers, and investment advisers on securities and corporate governance issues, and regulatory compliance, among other things. Mr. Garcia is also a member of the Firm’s Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Information Management group. Currently, Mr. Garcia represents:

• Morgan Stanley in a successful two-week jury trial of a rare private claim for insider trading, which was asserted by a Russian billionaire and his Netherlands-based investment vehicle, Veleron Holdings, regarding a transaction made in the lead-up to the financial crisis;
• the Audit Committee of American Realty Capital Properties in connection with an internal investigation into purported accounting irregularities;
• a Fortune 500 company in connection with an investigation of alleged price fixing in the market for oil futures and other energy derivatives;
• multiple retail companies in connection with internal investigations of employee misconduct;
• the former president of a government contractor in connection with an accounting fraud inquiry conducted by the DOJ and SEC;
• the former CFO of a Fortune 500 company in connection with government inquiries and a related shareholder class action regarding alleged accounting irregularities;
• an officer in the accounting department of a public company in connection with an SEC investigation of alleged accounting improprieties; and

Since joining Weil, Mr. Garcia has also represented General Electric Company and several of its senior officers in connection with securities class action litigation in the Southern District of New York relating to statements made concerning GE’s dividend, access to the commercial paper markets, and exposure to subprime and noninvestment grade debt.

Mr. Garcia is a fixture in the academic and legal community. He is a regular speaker and writer on securities litigation, enforcement, and white collar topics, including cybersecurity, social media communications and related SEC disclosure issues, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-corruption enforcement, and insider trading.

He has been a featured speaker at events coordinated by Bloomberg/Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Practising Law Institute, the New York City Bar Association, the American Bar Association, FINRA, SIFMA, and governmental agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. He also has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, and Reuters, among other publications.

Mr. Garcia is Chair of the New York Regional Committee of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Criminal Justice Section’s White Collar Crime Committee, and Co-Chair of the Securities Fraud Sub-Committee of the ABA’s Business Law Section.

He also is a member of the Federal Bar Council’s Membership Committee, and is a member of the board of the Legal Aid Society of New York. In addition, Mr. Garcia serves as Vice Chair of Weil’s Diversity Committee.

Mr. Garcia received his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he served as Senior Editor of the Journal of Law and Public Policy and as President of the Board of Student Advisers. He also received his A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard College.