Adrien Anderson is a member of the firm’s Securities Enforcement & Litigation practice group. She represents public and private companies, management, and employees in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations and enforcement proceedings, complex securities litigation, and financial regulatory compliance matters. Drawing on her experience as counsel to commissioners at both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Adrien offers clients valuable insight into the priorities, processes, and internal dynamics of these regulatory agencies.
Adrien represents clients across multiple industries — including financial services, crypto, and technology — in federal and state courts, with a focus on federal securities law violations. She has significant experience defending individuals and entities in a variety of professional liability and malpractice matters, and regularly advises on complex internal investigations. Adrien’s practice covers all phases of litigation from pleadings and complex discovery to dispositive motions and trial preparation, bringing strategic insight to high-stakes disputes in an evolving regulatory landscape.
Adrien earned both her J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Denver. While in law school, Adrien served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Race to the Bottom securities law blog, as well as a Research Assistant to a former PCAOB board member, J. Robert Brown Jr. Adrien also published The Policy of Determining Significant Policy under Rule 14a-8(i)(7), a law review article analyzing the public policy exception to the ordinary business exclusion of the SEC’s shareholder proposal rule, which has been cited by a former Director of Investment Management at the SEC, as well as an SEC Commissioner.
Experience
- Multiple large multinational and public companies in internal investigations on federal regulatory issues.
- Large foreign financial firm in conducting cryptocurrency and carbon markets jurisdictional survey analysis.
- National retailer in high-profile merger-related antitrust litigation in both state and federal courts.
- Multiple large global asset managers in financial regulatory analysis and compliance work.
- Foreign sovereign investment entity in regulatory opinion memos in compliance with U.S. federal financial regulation.
- Industry trade organization in ghost writing comment letter to an SEC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
- Manufacturer in an SEC investigation into a private placement.
- Dually registered investment advisor/broker dealer in several parallel customer arbitration and litigation matters deriving from losses in a net-credit-spread options trading strategy.
- Multiple registered representatives and securities professionals in securities fraud matters in state court, federal court, and FINRA arbitrations.
- National governing body for the U.S. Olympic Committee in civil litigation for misconduct.
- Securities attorney in malpractice matter arising from a securities transaction resulting in fraud.
- Multiple clients, including accountants, attorneys, and board members, in professional liability and malpractice matters.
- Private company in a regulatory investigation stemming from the SEC’s EB-5 Immigration Investor Program enforcement sweep.
Perspectives
Credentials
Education
- J.D., University of Denver Sturm College of Law
- M.B.A., University of Denver, Daniels College of Business
- B.A., International Affairs, University of Colorado Boulder
Admissions
- Colorado
- District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Government & Military Service
- Counsel, Office of Commissioner Allison Herren Lee, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Senior counsel, Office of Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson, Commodity Futures Trading Commission