Daniel Michael

Mr. Michael regularly conducts internal investigations for clients and has advised companies on crisis management, regulatory analyses of current and prospective business operations, and the development and enhancement of policies and compliance-related controls.

Mr. Michael’s representations have included, among others:

• broker-dealers in SEC and FINRA investigations, including in connection with investment banking activity, retail sales practices, cybersecurity and recordkeeping requirements
• hedge funds, fund managers and other investment advisers in SEC investigations and examinations
• digital asset issuers and trading platforms in SEC investigations concerning registration requirements
• internal investigations involving a corporation’s accounting and related disclosures

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Michael served as the chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit (CFI), where he oversaw a nationwide team of attorneys and market specialists in investigations and enforcement actions involving complex financial products and market practices.

Through his role at CFI and other high-level roles at the SEC, Mr. Michael developed an extensive understanding of issues involving complex financial instruments. In particular, he handled and supervised numerous matters concerning valuation, volatility, digital asset offerings, DeFi offerings and platforms, Regulation Best Interest and sales practices, security-based swaps, ESG disclosures and the SEC financial responsibility rules.

At the SEC, Mr. Michael also supervised many blockchain and digital asset matters. In addition to supervising the SEC’s first decentralized finance case, the enforcement actions investigated by CFI under his leadership involved initial coin offerings, crypto trading platforms and offerings of governance tokens, collateralized tokens and digital assets that provide synthetic exposure to securities.

Mr. Michael has spoken and written extensively on SEC enforcement and white collar criminal matters and is the author of a quarterly column published by Reuters that focuses on regulatory issues relating to digital assets and blockchain technology. In recognition of his written work, Mr. Michael was honored as a recipient of a Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award in 2023.