Ivan B. Knauer is an American lawyer whose practice centers on securities litigation and enforcement. He began his legal career in Boston in 1989, later served in the SEC's Enforcement Division and as managing trial counsel at FINRA, and has practiced as a partner at several national law firms. Since 2023 he has been a partner at SECIL Law in Washington, D.C.
Background
Knauer's documented early life is connected with his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania, a private institution founded in 1740 in Philadelphia and one of the oldest universities in the United States. He graduated from Penn in 1983, when its undergraduate college belonged to the long-established Ivy League tradition of liberal arts education.
He then pursued legal training at the New York University School of Law, which conferred his Juris Doctor in 1989. NYU's law school, founded in 1835, is one of the older law schools in the United States and draws on the large legal market of New York City.
He was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1989, and sources later record his admission to practice in the District of Columbia and New York. His career subsequently moved between Boston, Washington, D.C., and several national firms and regulatory bodies.
Education
Knauer received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. Penn is a private research university and a member of the Ivy League, and its undergraduate college has long combined a liberal arts curriculum with a broad range of professional and scientific programs.
Knauer then attended the New York University School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor in 1989. The law school's New York location placed its students in close contact with the city's major financial, corporate and litigation practices, which later became central to securities law work. Admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1989 followed this legal training.
Career
Knauer began his professional career in 1989 as an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP, a Boston law firm founded in 1865, and remained there until 1995. He also later served as a special assistant district attorney in Massachusetts, a role that connected his private practice with public prosecution.
From 1995 to 1998 he was senior counsel in the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC was established in 1934 after the 1929 stock market crash, and although its Division of Enforcement was formally created in 1972, enforcement work had been part of the agency's responsibilities from its founding. In this position Knauer led investigations into insider trading, sales practices involving mutual funds, and other securities law violations.
In 2003 he became a partner at Pepper Hamilton LLP, a Philadelphia-based firm, and he remained there until 2005, when he left to join Bingham McCutchen. He subsequently joined the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which was formed in July 2007 through the consolidation of the National Association of Securities Dealers and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration operations of the New York Stock Exchange. At FINRA he served as vice president and managing trial counsel in the Department of Enforcement.
Knauer rejoined Pepper Hamilton in early 2008 as a partner in its Washington office, where he focused on securities litigation, securities enforcement and general commercial litigation. He later co-chaired the firm's securities and financial services enforcement group and, with a colleague, represented the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that was later settled. He also practiced as a partner at Ballard Spahr, a national law firm, and at Snell & Wilmer, an Arizona-based firm, where he served as a commercial litigation partner from 2018 to 2020. He later became a partner at Armstrong Teasdale, a St. Louis-based firm.
In August 2023 Knauer joined SECIL Law PLLC as a partner in Washington, D.C. SECIL Law is a boutique firm, and Knauer joined it alongside former SEC colleagues. He represents broker-dealers, investment advisers, public companies, officers and directors in investigations by FINRA, the SEC and other federal and state agencies, and he has also served as an expert witness in state and federal courts on securities matters.
