A partner in the Litigation Department and co-chair of the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group, Charles E. Davidow focuses his practice on securities enforcement proceedings, corporate internal investigations and private securities litigation and arbitration. Mr. Davidow has extensive experience representing board committees, institutions and individuals in connection with investigations, litigation and SEC enforcement proceedings under the federal securities laws. He also represents issuers of securities and their officers and directors, as well as financial services firms and accounting firms, in class action and shareholder derivative litigation.

Mr. Davidow is currently representing parties in numerous lawsuits and regulatory investigations arising out of the recent credit market crisis. These include matters involving accuracy of disclosures and financial reporting, practices relating to auction rate securities, hedge fund losses, the collapse of Bear Stearns, the merger of Merrill Lynch and losses suffered by Fannie Mae. He has also represented parties in investigations into possible foreign corrupt practices and stock option backdating.

Mr. Davidow has represented special board committees conducting investigations of financial misconduct at Enron and WorldCom, along with numerous other companies. He has conducted internal investigations of subjects including stock options backdating, use of special purpose entities, revenue recognition, timing of expenses and quality of corporate governance.

Mr. Davidow has represented companies and individuals in SEC and other regulatory investigations into most of the major Wall Street controversies of the last 25 years, including the insider trading scandal involving Ivan Boesky and others, the Salomon Brothers Treasury Auction scandal, the failure of Long-Term Capital Management, the collapses of Enron, WorldCom, and cases involving allegations of mutual fund market timing, stock options backdating and numerous less publicized inquiries.

He has represented financial institutions, accounting firms, corporations, and corporate officers and directors in defending class actions and shareholder derivative actions. In recent years, courts have granted motions to dismiss in the following cases in which he represented moving defendants: In re Citigroup Auction Rate Securities Litigation, No. 08 Civ. 3095 (LTS), 2011 WL 744745 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 1, 2011); In re Fannie Mae 2008 Securities Litigation, 742 F.Supp.2d 382 (S.D.N.Y. 2010); ECA Acquisitions, Inc. v. MAT Three LLC, 09 Civ. 590 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2010); Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System v. Pandit, No. 08 Civ. 7389 (LTS), 2009 WL 2902587 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2009); City of Cleveland v. Ameriquest Securities, Inc., 621 F.Supp.2d 513 (N.D. Ohio 2009), aff’d, 615 F.3d 496 (6th Cir. 2010); Steinberg v. Ericsson, No. 07-Civ-9615 (RPP), 2008 WL 5170640 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 10, 2008), aff'd, 2009 WL 3228895 (2d Cir. Oct. 8, 2009), Lowinger v. Johnston, No. 3:05CV316-H, 2007 WL 2344882 (W.D.N.C. Aug. 16, 2007), In re XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc., 479 F.Supp.2d 165 (D.D.C. 2007), In re: Bristol Myers Squibb Derivative Litigation, No. 02 Civ. 8571 (LAP), 2007 WL 959081 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 30, 2007), Pew v. Cardarelli, No. 5:03-CV-742 (NAM), 2005 WL 172116 (N.D.N.Y. Mar. 17, 2005), aff'd, 164 Fed. Appx. 41 (2d Cir. 2006); Greenhouse v. MCG Capital Corp., 392 F.3d 650 (4th Cir. 2004), and In re Allied Capital Corp. Securities Litigation, 02 Civ. 3812 (GEL), 2003 WL 1964184 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 25, 2003).

Mr. Davidow speaks regularly on topics relating to corporate governance, on regulatory and litigation aspects of the credit market crisis, and on lessons to be drawn from the corporate scandals of recent years. He was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of its top securities enforcement lawyers in DC (2009, 2010) and he has been recognized by Chambers USA as one of the country's leading lawyers in Securities Regulation/Enforcement (2008-2011), by Benchmark Litigation as a National securities and DC litigation “Star” (2009, 2010), by his peers for The Best Lawyers in America in securities litigation and securities regulation (2011, 2012), and by Super Lawyers as a DC securities litigator (2010, 2011).

Mr. Davidow served as editor and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review.