Do I need a lawyer for possible SEC investigation?
In general, while the SEC is often sympathetic to people who appeare not to have made a lot of profit, they often continue keeping up the pressure against the “little guys” in the hope that they will “flip” and give up people that leaked the information or others who made greater profits. (Look up what happened to Roger Blackwell’s associates.) Your downside is a lot more than the $2,000 trade you made. And assessing the scope of that downside depends on things that you might have no way of knowing — things like whether your drinking buddies also traded in the “window”, or if you can be linked to a potential “leaker” of inside information. There are simply too many unknowns here, compounded by the fact that you don’t really know what stage the company’s investigation is in. (Presumably, you haven’t personally received a “target” letter yet, but that in and of itself doesn’t mean you’re not on the radar or will soon be.) You should know that lawyers who defend civil and criminal inside
I wouldn’t bother with a lawyer yet. Just document all of the circumstances around your trade, and what you knew and when you knew it. 401k-related investment activity for $2k as part of an ongoing process to divest ownership is a pretty solid defense, as long as you can show the existence of such a process and clear separation between you and the parties that made the accounting irregularity. If the SEC decides to talk to you personally, then you should bring your own lawyer to that meeting. But from the question, it doesn’t appear that they’re even investigating the company yet, much less bringing you in for talks. So at this point, hiring a lawyer would just incur large fees, and the lawyer would tell you, over the course of several hours, to document everything and wait to talk to the SEC. Assuming that everything you’ve said about the trade is correct, I might even ask the company lawyer to be in on that meeting and skip out on the personal lawyer. The company lawyer has interest
That is absurd. Nothing the company’s lawyer finds out is discoverable for a variety of reasons. This is so very, very wrong. The company’s lawyer represents the company, not anonymous. The communication between anonymous and the lawyer is therefore not privileged. If the company wants its lawyer to tell the SEC what anonymous said in the interview, the lawyer will do so. If the company’s lawyer knew what she was doing, she told anonymous this at the beginning of the interview. Anonymous: the value of the advice you are getting in this thread is worth about what you are paying for it.
Your local Bar Association should be able to refer you to a lawyer. Whether you need a lawyer depends on your exposure in the matter… which could vary wildly… say if you have a securities license. To determine this exposure you should talk to a lawyer… I know… a catch 22. But that should only take a couple of hours at most and might even be free. (Unless you do end up needing a lawyer.
