Barry R. Goldsmith is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Co-Chair of the Firm's Securities Enforcement Practice Group.  Mr. Goldsmith is also a member of the firm's Securities Litigation Practice Group and White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group.  Mr. Goldsmith's practice focuses on the representation of securities firms, brokers/dealers, investment companies and investment advisers and other financial institutions and their employees.  Mr. Goldsmith recently joined the firm after serving as Executive Vice President for Enforcement of NASD, the primary private-sector regulator of the country’s securities industry.  Mr. Goldsmith was NASD’s top enforcement official responsible for formulating its national enforcement policy and overseeing investigations and cases. Prior to his 10-year tenure at NASD, Mr. Goldsmith served as Chief Litigation Counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission where he was responsible for all enforcement litigation brought by the agency.

Mr. Goldsmith brings a wealth of experience to our firm.  He oversaw NASD's enforcement division during a period of major change and enforcement activity on Wall Street.  He was responsible for major NASD enforcement initiatives involving IPO allocation practices, research analyst conflicts of interest, fixed income abuses, variable annuity and life insurance sales practices, as well as mutual fund and hedge fund sales and marketing activities.  As Chief Litigation Counsel at the SEC, Mr. Goldsmith had significant responsibilities for the SEC's landmark cases against Drexel Burnham Lambert, Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and Paul Bilzerian.  He successfully tried precedent setting enforcement actions against Victor and Steven Posner where he obtained the first ever SEC-litigated officer and director bar and the SEC's first litigated “stock parking” case against First City Financial Corp. and Mark Belzberg.

Mr. Goldsmith joined NASD in 1996.  During his tenure, he more than doubled the number of enforcement staff under his direction and significantly increased the number of new enforcement actions by NASD's 16 offices throughout the country.  Prior to serving as head of enforcement at NASD, Mr. Goldsmith was at the Division of Enforcement at the SEC for 10 years, serving as Chief Litigation Counsel from 1993 to 1996 and Senior Deputy Chief Litigation Counsel from 1990 to 1993. 

In 2010, Mr. Goldsmith was ranked as one of the top Securities Regulatory and Enforcement attorneys in the nation by Chambers USA America's Leading Business Lawyers.  In 2009, he was also named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of Washington's Top Lawyers for securities law.  Mr. Goldsmith is also listed in the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America for securities law.  He is a frequent speaker on securities enforcement and regulatory issues at industry, legal and media sponsored conferences.  Mr. Goldsmith has also authored and co-authored several industry related articles.

Prior to the SEC, Mr. Goldsmith was a litigation partner with a Washington, DC law firm and served as a law clerk to a federal district judge.  He received his law degree in 1975 from Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as lead articles editor of Law and Policy in International Business.  Mr. Goldsmith graduated magna cum laude in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1972.