Jina Choi is a partner in the San Francisco office of Gibson Dunn and a member of the firm’s Securities Enforcement and White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Groups. Jina represents and counsels major public and private companies and financial institutions, as well as their executives and boards of directors, on government and internal investigations, enforcement-related litigation, whistleblower complaints and compliance programs.
With a unique and rare skill set that allows her to offer clients exceptional and comprehensive legal support, Jina has served in high level roles as a federal prosecutor, SEC enforcement lawyer and defense counsel. Prior to joining the firm, Jina served as the Chief of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Section at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, where she oversaw some of the most complex criminal investigations and prosecutions in the Bay Area, including those involving technology, AI, health care and life sciences companies. Before that, she was a Chambers-ranked defense counsel at a major international law firm and prior to that, she worked for many years in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where she ultimately served as Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office (SFRO). As Regional Director, Jina led a staff of over 130 attorneys, accountants, and other professionals responsible for the SEC’s enforcement and compliance programs in the SFRO, which is responsible for the SEC's enforcement and examination programs in Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Alaska. She supervised and managed teams of attorneys and professionals who investigated and litigated cases involving violations of federal securities laws, including accounting fraud, disclosure fraud, investment fraud, FCPA violations, insider trading, market manipulation and investment adviser/broker dealer fraud. While at the SEC, Jina worked closely with senior staff in Washington, DC and around the country to bring some of the agency’s most complex and groundbreaking enforcement actions.
Jina’s distinguished government experience also includes serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Texas, serving as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, Jr., in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
Jina received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Prize Semifinalist and the Executive Editor for the Yale Law and Policy Review, and her B.A. from Oberlin College. With her in-depth knowledge and experience, Jina has served as a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School, NYU School of Law, University of California Law San Francisco and University of Virginia School of Law and is a frequent speaker on SEC Enforcement developments, government investigations, regulatory developments, corporate resolutions and compliance.
Capabilities
- White Collar Defense and Investigations
- Accounting Firm Advisory and Defense
- Crisis Management
- Securities Enforcement
- Securities Litigation
- Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance
Credentials
Education:
- Yale University - 1994 Juris Doctor
- Oberlin College - 1991 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- California Bar
- New York Bar