Frank C. Razzano is a partner in the Washington office of Pepper Hamilton LLP. Mr. Razzano focuses his practice on all areas of civil, commercial and criminal litigation, with an emphasis on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission enforcement. He has 40 years of civil and criminal jury trial experience, concentrating in securities litigation, broker-dealer regulation, SEC enforcement and white-collar criminal defense.
Recent matters he has handled include obtaining an acquittal in a criminal insider trading case; a judgment after trial dismissing an SEC cease-and-desist proceeding against the managing director of a major bank involving late trading and market timing; and a dismissal of a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) disciplinary proceeding against the CEO of a major broker-dealer. He also has represented executives of Fortune 500 companies in grand jury investigations and SEC investigations.
In the international arena, Mr. Razzano prosecuted as an Assistant United States Attorney overseas corruption before the FCPA was enacted. As defense counsel, he has handled FCPA, money-laundering, customs and criminal securities cases involving Canada, New Zealand, Germany, the Bahamas, Japan, Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands. He has also successfully defeated attempted extradition, taught International Criminal Law for a decade at University of Maryland Law School, and served as a visiting professor at Catholic University of Poland and the University of Dnepropetrovsk in the Ukraine. He has also published widely on the FCPA and money-laundering.
Mr. Razzano joined Pepper Hamilton in 2008 from Dickstein Shapiro LLP in Washington, where he had been a partner since 1996. He started his legal career at Shea & Gould, where he eventually became managing partner of the Washington office.
Mr. Razzano has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, where he handled political corruption and mail and wire fraud cases, and as Assistant Chief Trial Attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he tried “cooked books” and “pump and dump” cases.
Mr. Razzano is a member of the American Bar Association, for which he served as chairman of the Criminal Laws Committee of the Business Law Section (1996-1999); the District of Columbia Bar, where he served as chairman of the Litigation Section (1987-1989); the Virginia Trial Lawyers’ Association; the Virginia State Bar; and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. In 1994 and 1995, he served as president of the Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni, and currently is a director of the Association.
He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Maryland Law School (1996-present), where he has taught classes on business crimes, federal securities fraud litigation, international criminal law, regulation of securities markets, and evidence.
Mr. Razzano serves as the civil law editor for RICO Law Reporter (1989-present), and has been a member of its advisory board since 1986. He serves as an advisory board member for the Securities Regulation Law Journal (1998-present) and the Securities Litigation Reform Act Reporter (1996-present). He also was a member of the honorary advisory committee for the Journal of International Law and Practice at Detroit College of Law and has served as a member of the advisory board for the Journal of Corporate Disclosure and Confidentiality. He writes frequently for publications such as The Business Lawyer, The International Lawyer, The Securities Regulation Law Journal, The Journal of International Law and Practice, The Journal of Business & Technology, and Business Law Today. Mr. Razzano recently wrote “The Expanding Criminalization of Transnational Bribery: Global Prosecution Necessitates Global Compliance,” The International Lawyer (Winter 2008).
Mr. Razzano is a frequent news commentator, appearing on CNN, CNNfn, CBS, Fox and CNBC regarding SEC enforcement and white-collar crime. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, The Best Lawyers in America and was selected for inclusion on the 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers lists.
Mr. Razzano is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Virginia, New York and New Jersey, as well as before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Ninth Circuits, and various districts courts across the country.
