Samuel Gelb
Samuel represents companies and individuals in high-stakes government investigations and complex commercial disputes.
Samuel Gelb focuses his practice on white collar and regulatory defense, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation. He has successfully represented companies and individuals in high-stakes cases, including criminal, civil, SEC, DOJ, and FINRA investigations and enforcement proceedings involving allegations of securities fraud and employee misconduct.
Samuel also maintains an active pro bono practice. He represents clients in asylum proceedings and applications for sentence reductions under the First Step Act. Samuel also represents clients in their role as amici, including in connection with a recent case before the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States.
Prior to joining the firm, Samuel served as a law clerk to the Honorable Nina Gershon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Samuel received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar and an articles editor for the Human Rights Law Review. He obtained his B.A. from Columbia College with departmental honors in political science.
Areas of focus
Services
Education & Credentials
Education
- Columbia Law School, J.D., Articles Editor, Human Rights Law Review, 2019
- Columbia University, B.A., International Relations and American History, 2013
Bar and Court Admissions
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New York
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Related Employment
- Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, New York, NY, Legal Assistant, 2014-2016; Associate, 2019-2023
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami, FL, Judicial Intern for the Hon. Ursula Ungaro, 2017
Clerkships
- Hon. Nina Gershon, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
Professional Experience
Representative Experience
- Successfully represented an individual in a federal criminal securities fraud sentencing, resulting in a sentence of time served.
- Acted as independent compliance consultant for a global financial institution and reviewed and reported on its trade surveillance program across multiple international trading venues.
- Represented numerous individuals in internal investigations and investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) relating to the use of personal devices to send business-related text messages.
- Successfully settled claims for breach of contract against multinational bottling company.
- Represented online trading platform in its SEC and FINRA settlements relating to best execution practices and payment for order flow.*
- Represented online trading platform in its June 2021 global FINRA settlement relating to platform outages, options, and supervision.*
- Represented consulting company McKinsey & Company in multiple bankruptcy proceedings and a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) action relating to its disclosures as Chapter 11 debtor advisor.*
- Represented construction company in a criminal investigation by the DOJ into alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations by individuals at a joint venture company.*
- Represented Ivy League University in federal class actions regarding U.S. News & World Report rankings.*
- Online trading platform in multiple putative class action lawsuits arising from outages on Robinhood’s trading platform.*
- Insurance Company in a putative consumer class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington related to factoring transactions.*
*Prior experience