Motley Rice adds former SEC senior counsel to growing whistleblower litigation team
Motley Rice LLC today announces that plaintiffs’ attorney Rebecca M. Katz, who has committed more than 20 years to fighting for the rights of clients harmed by corporate malfeasance, has rejoined Motley Rice LLC as senior counsel in the firm’s New York office. With a history of working with trailblazing whistleblowers, Motley Rice, one of the nation’s largest plaintiffs’ law firms, is continuing to strengthen its whistleblower practice with the addition of Katz.
“After a brief time away from Motley Rice, we are pleased that Rebecca is back on our whistleblower litigation team and working for the benefit of our clients,” said member attorney and practice group leader William Narwold. “It is vital that whistleblowers feel comfortable to come forward, trust their counsel and present the information they know to help protect others and also promote change. Rebecca is a seasoned whistleblower lawyer, including serving nearly a decade as senior counsel for the SEC’s Enforcement Division, with experience in handling a variety of whistleblower litigation and holding leadership roles in a number of major cases involving both domestic and international clients.”
Attorneys with Motley Rice are well known for working with famed whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand in the tobacco whistleblower litigation in the 1990s. Joe Rice, co-founding member of Motley Rice, and other attorneys at the firm, later were part of the leadership team that negotiated the historic Master Tobacco Settlement. Since then, the firm and its attorneys have worked with many whistleblowers, helping them bring their claims forward, effectively and confidently, while also creating corporate change. Whistleblower cases include lawsuits brought under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act, as well claims under the SEC, CFTC, IRS and other whistleblower programs.
Joining as a lead attorney on Motley Rice’s whistleblower litigation team, Rebecca represents and protects individual whistleblowers who expose corporate misconduct. She helps her clients, who come from all levels of job responsibility in a wide range of industries, to investigate and report fraud to governmental enforcement agencies including the SEC, DOJ, IRS and CTFC. She has represented senior executives, mid-level managers and staff of multinational banking and financial services and public companies, including financial advisors, clinical researchers, quantitative analysts, engineers, commodities and securities traders.
“Representing whistleblowers and stewarding whistleblower litigation takes certain knowledge, resources, experience and insights into how the various government bodies, such as the SEC, operate,” said Katz. “Motley Rice and my fellow attorneys with the firm have those characteristics. I’m very pleased to be back with Motley Rice to help lead their continued growth in whistleblower litigation.”
Rebecca has been at the forefront of this field since the SEC Whistleblower Program was established under the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and is recognized for her work as a whistleblower attorney. She has represented numerous clients in navigating the intricacies of the SEC whistleblower process from filing the initial complaint through the final award process.
For nearly a decade prior to entering private practice, Rebecca served as senior counsel for the SEC’s Enforcement Division. In addition to her whistleblower work, Rebecca has more than 20 years of experience litigating complex securities fraud cases, and was a partner and held senior leadership roles at two large New York plaintiffs’ litigation firms.
She is a published author and former faculty member at the Practising Law Institute’s Securities Litigation & Enforcement Institute (both in the United States and United Kingdom) and has also lectured at the Fordham University School of Law’s Eugene P. and Delia S. Murphy Conference on Corporate Law – Corporations, Investors and the Securities Markets. A graduate of Hofstra University and Hofstra University School of Law, Katz is a recipient of numerous awards and accolades for her work in securities plaintiffs’ litigation and is a member of the New York City Bar Association Securities Litigation Committee.