Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP continues the expansion of its White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice with the addition of Tracy S. Combs in the San Francisco office. During Combs’ eight-year tenure at the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), she served in a variety of roles in Salt Lake City and San Francisco, most recently as director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office, where she oversaw some of the office’s most high-profile enforcement actions that had impact throughout the United States.
At Greenberg Traurig, Combs will counsel clients nationwide, including corporations, financial institutions, and individuals regarding complex investigations, litigation, and regulatory matters, including those involving the SEC, the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other law enforcement agencies and financial regulators.
“Welcoming Tracy and other exceptionally skilled attorneys like her is key in our strategic expansion of the firm’s global Litigation Practice and in the overall growth of our California locations, which include six throughout the state,” said G. Michelle Ferreira, senior vice president of Greenberg Traurig, co-chair of the firm’s global Tax Practice, and co-managing shareholder of the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. “Tracy’s experience of having worked in-depth for years with numerous federal agencies in matters with national impact and her expertise in the rapidly developing area of cybersecurity regulation will be highly valuable to our clients throughout the country.”
During Combs’ tenure as a former SEC trial attorney and senior counsel in the Division of Enforcement, she brought several groundbreaking actions, including the SEC’s first cybersecurity disclosure enforcement action involving a public company’s failure to disclose a massive data breach and an insider trading action against a biopharmaceutical executive in the Northern District of California, identified in the media as the first “shadow” insider trading case. In addition, Combs served for three years in the Division of Enforcement’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, where she co-led its Cybersecurity & Regulated Entities working group. From 2021 to 2022, Combs served as counsel to the Director of Enforcement, advising on priority enforcement actions and coordinating with the SEC’s criminal and civil law enforcement partners nationwide.
“Greenberg Traurig’s commitment to legal excellence and its entrepreneurial, collegial culture are a perfect fit with my practice,” Combs said. “The firm’s multidisciplinary global platform of highly collaborative attorneys makes it very attractive to both attorneys and clients looking for growth locally and worldwide.”
Prior to Combs’ government service, she was a litigator at a large law firm in Philadelphia and New York, with a focus in high-stakes white collar criminal matters, securities class actions, and complex commercial disputes. Combs also clerked for the Honorable Luis Felipe Restrepo in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.