Barry O'Connell

Barry O'Connell is a partner in the New York office of DWT's financial services practice group, focusing on white collar, investigations, and government controversies. As both a former SEC Enforcement attorney and a federal prosecutor, Barry brings a unique blend of civil and criminal experience to his representation of individuals and companies facing high stakes SEC or criminal matters.

Barry spent more than a decade in the SEC's Enforcement Division, primarily as part of its specialized Market Abuse Unit (a group dedicated to methodical investigations of the most complex insider trading, manipulation and market structure issues—often with parallel criminal involvement). During that time, Barry prosecuted, among other conduct, insider trading, first-of-their-kind trading manipulation cases, one of the largest FCPA settlements in history, and novel asset management actions. The majority of those cases involved a parallel criminal action. Barry also litigated heavily on behalf of the commission, including significant oral arguments and several trials (all of which he won). The subject matter of those arguments and trials involved accounting failures, broker-dealer regulatory requirements, investment management fraud, and other investment schemes or offering frauds. He received recognition for those cases, including the Enforcement Division's highest honor, the Ellen B. Ross Award. Before joining Enforcement, Barry also spent time in the commission's policy division in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis playing a vital role in drafting rules concerning conflicts of interest in asset-backed securities transactions.

Following his time at the SEC, Barry served as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Offices in both the Eastern District of New York and the District of New Jersey. Barry prosecuted insider trading criminally as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the EDNY and then went on to prosecute violent crime and drug offenses as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Barry has deep regulatory and statutory knowledge in the securities space and pairs that knowledge with civil and criminal litigation experience—making him ready to handle all variety of white-collar dilemmas from investigation to criminal trial.

Barry is a Cornell Law graduate with an undergraduate degree also from Cornell.