Linda Chatman Thomsen, the Director of the Enforcement Division, said, “Throughout his tenure here, David has demonstrated over and over again his commitment to excellence, integrity and fairness. He has fought hard and tirelessly for investors. He has been a great litigator, a great leader and a great public servant. We will miss him.”
“Serving the Commission for the past ten years has been the most satisfying professional experience that anyone could ever want,” Kornblau said. “Enforcement priorities sometimes changed—from insider trading to internet fraud to accounting scandals to mutual fund abuses. But one thing remained, and remains, constant: the extraordinary work of my colleagues, who labor tirelessly to protect investors and make the U.S. capital markets the envy of the world.”
As chief litigation counsel, Kornblau led the enforcement division’s nationwide litigation program during a period of numerous corporate scandals and heightened enforcement activity, including cases against Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, Wall Street research analysts, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and mutual funds. Despite the increasing complexity of the Commission’s enforcement actions, trial attorneys under his supervision maintained the Commission’s strong litigation success record. Kornblau expanded the Washington trial unit by over 50 percent and created a 7-person collections unit, which has improved the tracking, collection, and distribution of SEC monetary recoveries. He also handled special assignments in cases against Halliburton Company, Hollinger International, HealthSouth Corporation, and Martha Stewart.
As a Commission trial attorney from 1995 to 2000, Kornblau litigated and tried numerous enforcement actions in federal district court and before SEC Administrative Law Judges. His cases involved all Commission program areas, including financial fraud, insider trading, hedge funds, market manipulation, municipal securities, broker misconduct, registration violations, and offering fraud. He also served as a special assistant U.S. attorney in a criminal securities fraud prosecution in Memphis, which resulted in six guilty pleas, a 7-week jury trial, and a 29-year sentence for the primary culprit, career con man David Namer.
From 1987 to 1995, Kornblau was with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he handled a broad commercial and pro bono litigation docket, including working on the civil and criminal defense of Michael Milken.
Kornblau graduated cum laude in physics from Princeton University in 1983. He received his law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1986, and served as a member of the board of editors of the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Charles M. Merrill on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
