SEC Whistleblower law firm
Stuart Meissner is a Dodd-Frank Act SEC Whistleblower Rules Contributor We will beat any competing fee arrangement by 20%*
ABOUT MEISSNER ASSOCIATES
A Proven Track Record
When you work with Meissner Associates, you’re working with a whistleblower law firm that has a proven history of helping insiders expose corruption and fraud in a variety of industries. Since 2001, we’ve been representing whistleblowers and helping them claim the rewards they deserve.
When it comes to working with the SEC or the CFTC, you don’t want a novice attorney. While Dodd-Frank grants a number of robust protections, it takes experience and firsthand knowledge to get the best results and safeguard your rights.
Our firm’s founder was involved in crafting the Dodd-Frank regulations that reward and protect whistleblowers. So you can rest easy knowing that this is exactly what you get when you work with us.
Our Representation Lets You Remain Anonymous
Prospective SEC whistleblowers have good reason to be nervous about coming forward and submitting a tip. There’s a lot at stake. If you want to be an anonymous whistleblower and protect your identity, the law requires that you interact with the SEC through a licensed whistleblower lawyer.
Our firm knows how to protect the rights of our clients, and we can help you remain anonymous by submitting the Form TCR to the SEC on your behalf. We know what sort of information the SEC is most interested in. And we’ll ensure that your tip is complete, compelling, and efficient.
Maximize Your SEC Whistleblower Award
You’ll be paid a whistleblower reward if the SEC collects over one million dollars in sanctions as a direct result of the investigation that your tip contributed to. However, the amount you’ll receive can range between 10 and 30 percent of the total money collected. A number of factors are considered when the SEC makes this determination.
Meissner Associates will help you maximize your reward by ensuring that your tip provides maximum utility and by making certain that you’re able to contribute to the investigation in every way possible.
Your whistleblower award could be worth millions of dollars. It’s important to do everything possible to increase the percentage you receive.
ABOUT STUART MEISSNER
Education:
New York University School of Law – LL.M – Master of Laws 1998
Hofstra University School of Law – JD – Juris Doctor 1988
Experience:
Former Assistant Attorney General for New York State
Former Assistant District Attorney – Manhattan, NY
WHY CHOOSE MEISSNER
Meissner Associates has been representing whistleblowers in securities industries since 2001. This means we’ve been helping insiders bring their tips to light since almost an entire decade before Dodd-Frank was even enacted. We know the ins and outs of whistleblower law and can help you submit your tip safely and effectively.
Stuart Meissner was a direct participant in developing the SEC rules that reward and protect whistleblowers. Meissner Associates was one of the first law firms to promote the Dodd-Frank whistleblower rules to the public. We have now secured millions of dollars in rewards on behalf of clients who possess important information.
As a small, boutique law firm, Meissner Associates will focus its attention 100 percent on you. Attorney Meissner himself will be directly available to you to answer any questions you might have. Whether you need guidance on the whistleblower process or are anxious about how to handle your employer, your concerns will be addressed.
Depending on the case, bounty potential, the company, and the evidence involved, Meissner Associates is able to offer flexible legal fee arrangements—up to 20 percent less than the typical contingency fee agreement. Plus, if you don’t receive a reward for your tip, you don’t pay anything in SEC whistleblower lawyer fees.
Meissner Associates will be fully focused on you and your tip. It’s important that your tip reach the SEC before another whistleblower acts. And the timeliness of your submission will affect your reward. We understand this and move quickly so your tip has maximum value when it is submitted to the SEC.
Stuart Meissner is a former criminal prosecutor who worked with both the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York Attorney General’s Office. He has in-depth knowledge of the legal issues that you might face due to your whistleblower tip. He can help minimize any prosecution if you were a participant in the misconduct.
IN THE MEDIA
In the News
US, UK and German Law Firms Collaborate to Help European Financial Whistleblowers Bring Cases, Collect Awards
Meissner & Associates, a New York firm that has secured the largest payment issued to any individual U.S. whistleblower, is collaborating with…
Law Firm Meissner Assoc. Represents Whistleblower in Nearly $22.5 Million Bounty Payment by Monsanto
Our client recently received a reward of over $22 million dollars, the second largest SEC reward in history and the largest ever for any US Citizen.
Whistleblower Attorney Stuart Meissner, Looking to Preserve Whistleblower Protections under Trump Administration
Mr. Meissner, an early Trump supporter, argues that whistleblower program is fully compatible with president-elect’s pro-business outlook.
Help the SEC Keep Investors Safe
With corporate corruption on the rise and fraud commonplace, the SEC simply can’t police the marketplace on its own. After the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the Dodd-Frank Act was put into place, giving the SEC powerful new tools to encourage potential whistleblowers to come forward with the information they possess.
By providing actionable and original information, whistleblowers have the potential to be rewarded with millions of dollars. Additionally, protections have been put into place that prevent retaliation and prosecution, making it safe for insiders to expose any wrongdoing that they are aware of.
This means that if you have a tip regarding financial misconduct, it’s not only safe and legal for you to do the right thing, but you could also be handsomely rewarded for doing so and maintain your position with your current employer.
Your Tip Could Be Worth Millions of Dollars
Meissner Associates is a law firm that has been working with whistleblowers for decades—even before Dodd-Frank’s inception. In fact, we were among the first firms to file claims under the new law and have helped our clients transform their tips into financial rewards worth millions of dollars.
By working with an experienced lawyer, you can maximize the potential bounty that you receive in return for your information. As long as your tip results in the SEC recovering at least one million dollars, you could receive a reward worth 10 to 30 percent of what’s recovered.
To date, Meissner Associates is responsible for the largest accounting-related reward yet received by a whistleblowing US citizen: $22.4 million. When you bring your tip to our firm, you can be confident that you’re working with experienced professionals who know how to get results.
What Makes a Good Whistleblower Tip
In order to result in a bounty, your whistleblower tip must meet four necessary criteria. First, it must be provided voluntarily. Second, the information must be original and not already known to the SEC. Third, it must lead to an enforceable action against the company or institution in question. Finally, the end sanctions must amount to more than one million dollars.
Even if you aren’t sure if your tip will satisfy all of these conditions, you can still submit your information and receive an honest evaluation from Meissner Associates. Under Dodd-Frank, you can remain anonymous by working with a licensed whistleblower lawyer, so there’s no risk involved in doing what’s right. You won’t have to be identified to the SEC until the end of the process when you receive your financial reward, and you’ll never be identified to the public unless you choose to do so yourself.
You Will Be Protected
As a whistleblower, you have extensive protections under both the Dodd-Frank Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Your employer cannot retaliate against you for exposing their securities violation. This means that you cannot be fired, demoted, or harassed for submitting your information and working with the SEC. As long as your tip met the required criteria, you will be protected from unjust actions taken against you.
While it should not be needed, we agree as part of our retention to defend our clients against any actions filed against them in the State of New York if those actions arise from and relate to their SEC submissions and are filed by the target of any SEC investigation prompted by those submissions. This is a benefit that we provide to you at no additional charge as part of our retention agreement. We want you to know that you’ll have someone to defend your rights even after the investigation closes.
- Voluntarily provide “original information”
- How one cooperates, assists and presents their assistance to the SEC directly impacts what if any reward any whistleblower may obtain
- Your information must lead to successful Commission enforcement action
- More than a $1 million settlement to collect reward
- Earn up to 30% of the settlement
- Even 1% of the settlement may mean the difference of millions of dollars in an increased reward
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Anyone with original information is eligible, as long as they are not a regulatory employee or employee of a prosecutorial body responsible for investigating and reporting such information and/or not part of the Audit Committee of a Board of Directors. The law allows for recovery of anyone else with original information, whether they are employees of the subject firm or person, a former employee, officer, business partner, vendor, banker, financial advisor, accountant, or even a neighbor, spouse, ex-spouse and even private individuals who believe they have uncovered original information of violations of securities statutes or financial frauds. However, unlike other law firms, so as to maintain its known credibility with regulators the Meissner firm carefully screens all matters and thus does not accept any and all claims that it is contacted on.
According to the law the specific percentage to be provided will be dependent upon the amount of assistance the SEC deems that the whistle blower provided, along with many other factors, including the promptness of the reporting to the SEC, any whistleblower participation in the wrongdoing, and other factors that the statute requires the SEC to consider.
Absolutely. The law specifically provides that the whistle-blower may remain anonymous as long as they interact with the SEC through a licensed attorney, until the time comes when a bounty is paid to the whistleblower when one’s identity is only revealed to the SEC, not the public, so that the award may be paid. The law also provides for a cause of action in Federal Court for any retaliation by employers as a result of filing a complaint, including double back pay, reinstatement with same seniority, attorney fees and costs. Although any attorney can file on your behalf, the experience, reputation and presentation by that attorney will no doubt play a large role in whether the SEC pursues any claim and the extent of assistance provided will determine the percentage recovery.
Experienced counsel is critical to both protect you and to ensure that your matter is provided the attention it deserves by the SEC. The Meissner law firm, and more importantly the Attorney who will personally represent you, has over two decades of documented securities, prosecutorial and regulatory experience and is known in not only having filed the first whistleblower claim pursuant to the new law but having achieved the second largest award in SEC whistelblower history of over 22 Million Dollars on behalf of his client. The firm benefits from the years of litigation experience that Mr. Meissner has accrued during his tenure in the NYS Attorney General’s Office Investor Protection and Financial Crimes Units under former Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and his predecessor, as well as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Trial Division under Hon. Robert Morgenthau and private practice. The Meissner firm uses these refined skills to help achieve the desired results for all clients. The firm coordinates all pressure points, so as to obtain the best results for its clients in seeking compensation for their legitimate claims and defenses. As in the case of a whistleblower claim which led to a 2006 New York State Attorney General investigation as reported in the New York Times where the firm represented a senior employee of UBS, in a whistleblower claim. Unlike most other major SEC Whistleblower law firms, which are led by fairly recent arrivals to the area, the Meissner firm prides itself on the confidentiality of the whistleblower, and our dedicated personal service where the client is not just treated as a case and handed off to an underling after retention, but rather as a person. Further, unlike the other major SEC whistleblower attorneys in the field we have years of client testimonials about Mr. Meissner to back up our service to our clients. The Meissner firm also includes in its retention free representation in New York for any actions taken by the subject company against the whistleblower as a result of the submission of their SEC whistleblower Tip because we want to encourage whistleblowers to come forward.
