Roger successfully prosecutes, defends and resolves tough securities, real estate and other commercial cases on behalf of businesses and individuals, and serves as a mediator and arbitrator as well.
Roger’s litigation practice focuses on securities litigation and real estate litigation, particularly complex matters. He defends and resolves governmental investigations, and disciplinary or enforcement actions, before the SEC, FINRA and the State of Washington DFI Securities Division and State Board of Accountancy. He also prosecutes, defends and resolves non-solicitation and trade secret disputes, securities arbitration actions and real estate disputes.
Roger has received intensive mediator training and is available to help resolve broker-dealer/customer, securities, non-competition, real estate and other civil disputes and would be pleased to do so. As a former federal law clerk who has decided many cases as an arbitrator, he is also available for engagement as a neutral or party-appointed arbitrator.
Roger frequently defends registered investment advisors, investment advisor representatives, hedge funds, hedge fund managers, investment bankers, broker-dealers and registered representatives in regulatory investigations and disciplinary actions brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA and the State of Washington Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) Securities Division, including presenting Wells submissions and CRD expungement requests.
Roger has significant securities litigation experience in class actions, stock option disputes, shareholder derivative actions, directors’ and officers’ liability issues, insider trading, corporate governance and internal investigations, proxy contests and mortgage-backed securities. He also prosecutes and defends customer claims against broker-dealers and registered representatives in court and before FINRA Dispute Resolution. These matters involve claims of unsuitability, churning, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and misrepresentation.
Roger was recently quoted in an Oregonian newspaper article discussing whether a CEO’s felony tax conviction should have been disclosed in the company’s initial public stock offering.
Roger litigates noncompetition, non-solicitation and trade secrets disputes, particularly between broker-dealers and registered representatives.
Roger’s real estate litigation practice is wide-ranging, including both prosecution and defense of claims involving major commercial leases, purchase and sale contracts, investments, partnership accounting and dissolution, condemnation/eminent domain, adverse possession, broker commissions, easements, landslides, lending/usury, and title disputes.
Recognized for effectively representing clients by combining strategic thinking with tenacious execution, Roger is also respected for developing creative approaches to resolving litigation disputes. To both litigation and mediation he brings insights into judicial decision-making provided by two years clerking for a federal trial judge and more than three decades in private practice.
Roger graduated from the Honors College of the University of Oregon. Prior to entering law school, he spent four years managing environmental issues in Oregon government, including responsible positions in the Office of the Governor, with the Senate Environment & Energy Committee, and for the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners.
Roger obtained his first year of legal training at the Yale Law School. He then transferred to the University of Oregon Law School, where he graduated second in his class. His environmental interests are reflected today in his service as Immediate Past President of the Board of Washington Wild and as a member of the Leadership Council of Yale University’s world-renowned School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Roger enjoys mountaineering, hiking, recreational rock climbing and ice climbing, watching the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks, creating Blu Ray shows, and spending time with his family. Since 2011 he has trekked and climbed in Bolivia, Ecuador, France, Italy, Nepal and Portugal, including ascending a 19,700-foot peak in Nepal on three hours’ sleep total over the prior five days.
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