A former senior official in the SEC’s Enforcement Division, Mike Osnato represents financial institutions, public companies, investment managers, cryptocurrency market participants and individuals in high-stakes regulatory and government investigations. Drawing on his deep breadth of experience at the SEC, Mike is the Head of Simpson Thacher’s Asset Management Regulatory and Enforcement Practice, where he specializes in providing private fund managers with practical and insightful regulatory, governance and compliance counseling, including with respect to regulatory developments involving cryptocurrency and other digital assets.
Mike served for nearly a decade at the SEC, where he most recently led the national unit charged with executing the agency’s post-Financial Crisis enforcement agenda in the markets for complex financial products. Based on a wealth of experience supervising and defending highly complex investigations, Mike has earned a reputation for providing clients with clear, results-oriented advice and persuading governmental agencies to drop challenging, high-stakes investigations. He is recognized by Chambers USA in Securities: Regulation: Enforcement, where clients and peers praise him as a “sophisticated and strong lawyer” who is “thoughtful, smart and deeply knowledgeable of the SEC rules and regulations” and “respected by the government and an advocate for his clients,” and highlight his “very nice touch with regulators.” Mike is also recognized by Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation as a National and New York “Litigation Star” in white collar and securities and is described by the publication as a “peer favorite.” In addition, he was named among Securities Docket’s “Enforcement Elite” for 2024, which highlights the best securities enforcement defense counsel in the industry
Updated Oct 2025
