Dentons announces today that Richard Hong has joined the Firm as a partner in its Commercial Litigation practice, based in New York. Hong brings more than 17 years of experience as a senior trial lawyer for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), handling high-stakes litigation across the banking, financial, securities and digital assets industries.

Hong focuses on helping individuals and entities navigate government and internal investigations, civil enforcement actions and criminal prosecutions. He has deep knowledge of the nuances and procedures of both the SEC and the Department of Justice, where he also worked, and he has tried dozens of civil and criminal cases around the country. As a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, he routinely teaches trial advocacy courses to lawyers across the country.

Hong is already a proven advocate for his clients before the government. In a recent widely publicized case, he not only won dismissal of the SEC’s enforcement action against his client, a cryptocurrency platform, but also obtained an attorneys’ fee sanctions award—an extremely rare result. One SEC trial lawyer and one staff counsel subsequently left the agency, and the SEC eventually shut down the office where they worked.

“Richard will make a great addition to our growing financial services and white collar practices,” said Sandy Hauser, head of Dentons’ US Region Commercial Litigation practice. “His long and successful tenure with the SEC, as well as his standout performance since entering private practice, position him as a valuable partner to clients who are staring down tricky investigations and enforcement actions.”

Hong is one of several lateral hires who have joined Dentons US’ Litigation practice in recent months, including partners Peter Bekker in New York, James Newland in Washington, DC, and Jonathan Shulan in St. Louis, and counsels Brett Grindrod in Washington, Lyndy Chang Stewart in Oakland and Kaitlin Wallace in Honolulu. These additions reflect the Firm’s investment in building a world-class litigation practice—growing both in capacity for serving our clients and in prominence as a leader in the law globally.

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