Braganca Law LLC

Lisa recovers investment losses and represents individuals and firms in SEC, state, and FINRA regulatory investigations. Lisa served as a Branch Chief in the Division of Enforcement of the Chicago Office of the Securities & Exchange Commission, where she handled investigations of accounting fraud, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, churning, and unsuitable investments. Since leaving the SEC, Lisa has helped recover millions of dollars in investment losses in court and in FINRA arbitrations. She has represented individuals and entities in numerous investigations by the SEC and other regulators of cryptocurrencies and token offerings, insider trading, financial fraud by public companies, and other conduct. While at the SEC, Lisa collaborated with the DOJ in investigating $2 billion in losses arising out of subprime auto lender Mercury Finance Company’s cooking the books and investigated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations arising out of bribery of Haitian customers officials. Both resulted in criminal convictions of CEOs and other senior executives. Lisa writes and speaks about elder financial exploitation, securities and cryptocurrency regulation, and recovering investment losses including the following: St. John's Law School Securities Arbitration Clinic (guest lecturer); 2019 Concordia University elder financial abuse program; CBA program, Truth Without Proof - getting blockchain transactions into evidence; co-author of Truth Without Proof article on Law360; Cryptocurrencies and Tokens: What are they and who regulates them, co-author with Lou Straney, PIABA Bar Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (2018); PIABA and CBA meetings and programs on cryptocurrency and token regulation, investor protection, and behavioral finance; American Bar Association TechShow 2019 – speaker on cryptocurrency and token regulation; National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) training on elder abuse by financial advisors; Chicago Bar Foundation / NITA trial advocacy and deposition skills programs instructor. Lisa serves as Chair of the CBA Securities Law Committee and is a member of the Women's White Collar Defense Association (WWCDA), the CBA Financial and Emerging Technology Committee, and the Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She has a B.A. (with honors) and J.D. / M.B.A. (Order of the Coif, honors) from the University of Chicago.