STEPHEN L. ASCHER, Partner Publications · Professional Activities New York Office Office: (212) 891-1670 Fax: (212) 891-1699 Email: sascher@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

Stephen L. Ascher is a partner in the Firm's Litigation Department.  He is a member of its Securities Litigation and Bankruptcy Litigation Practices.

Mr. Ascher’s practice focuses on claims for and against financial institutions, SEC enforcement work, and white-collar criminal matters, in addition to general commercial litigation.  He has represented institutions and individuals in cases involving the antitrust laws, RICO claims, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty claims, and the securities laws.  Many of those cases have gone to trial or arbitration.

Currently, Mr. Ascher is representing several financial institutions in a wide variety of disputes arising out of the ongoing crisis in the credit markets, including:

• The Examiner in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., in which the Examiner was appointed to investigate, among other things, the corporate governance of a company that suffered the largest bankruptcy in history;
• A major financial institution in a dispute concerning billions of dollars of collateralized debt obligations, swaps, and other derivative transactions; 
• The trustee for a bankrupt fund in a well-publicized dispute with its prime broker; and
• A large mortgage originator in various matters relating to its origination, sale, and securitization of mortgages.

Over the last 15 years, Mr. Ascher has regularly defended institutions and individuals in civil litigation arising out of prior front-page financial scandals, including representing:

• A Big Four accounting firm in two dozen cases alleging malpractice and fraud in connection with tax motivated transactions; 
• Four of the underwriters in the historic WorldCom class action; 
• Various insurance companies in billion-dollar claims involving commodity derivative transactions and credit default swaps relating to Enron and Parmalat.

Mr. Ascher also frequently represents plaintiffs in significant civil litigation.  For example:

• From 1999 through 2002, he was responsible for a series of lawsuits that yielded more than $400 million in settlements, including the largest recovery ever obtained by a Japanese company from a U.S. institution.
• From 2002 through 2006, Mr. Ascher represented a large European bank in $500 million claims against two major U.S. banks relating to their foreign exchange trading and prime brokerage units.

In addition, in his SEC and white-collar criminal practice, Mr. Ascher recently defended a securities trader who was indicted as part of the largest insider-trading prosecution in the last twenty years.  He also represented a mutual fund executive in the first federal trial involving securities claims relating to “market-timing.”  Moreover, Mr. Ascher has represented defendants accused by the SEC and the New York State Attorney General of insider trading, accounting fraud, and “late trading.”  Mr. Ascher has appeared in numerous federal and New York State criminal matters, including a seven week jury trial in the Eastern District of New York.

Mr. Ascher has made a significant commitment to pro bono work. For a decade, he represented the Legal Services Corporation in matters relating to various congressional restrictions on recipients of the federal legal aid subsidy. In these matters, Mr. Ascher argued a successful appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also appeared before the United States Supreme Court. In his pro bono work, Mr. Ascher has also represented more than a dozen families of 9/11 victims before the federal Victims’ Compensation Fund, and a number of indigent criminal defendants pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act.

Mr. Ascher graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude in 1988 and Harvard Law School cum laude in 1991. From 1991 to 1992, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Jesse E. Eschbach, Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Mr. Ascher is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, the Bar of New York State, and the Bars of several Federal courts.