Keri Curtis Axel

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Keri Curtis Axel is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer who practices white-collar criminal and government enforcement defense, as well as complex civil litigation. A former federal prosecutor and former SEC enforcement attorney, Keri draws on her considerable experience to help her clients navigate investigations and fight criminal charges or government enforcement actions around the country.

Described by colleagues as a force of nature, Keri has been lead or co-lead counsel in many high-profile and complex white-collar matters. She has also successfully litigated and
argued many Ninth Circuit Appeals. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Keri regularly defends clients before state and federal authorities, including the DOJ, SEC, CFPB, FTC, and the California Attorney General. Her experience includes investigations involving allegations of securities, investor, procurement, and immigration benefit fraud, public corruption, and tax fraud and evasion, and she has litigated complex civil matters in areas as diverse as patent, antitrust, and international tax. Keri also has substantial experience in cross-border investigations involving coordinated international law enforcement
efforts.

The common thread in Keri’s diverse career experiences is her interest in complex and technologically-challenging matters. As a federal prosecutor, she mastered engineering concepts, procurement jargon, and complex financial analysis to handle tax and procurement matters. As an SEC enforcement attorney, she focused on matters involving complicated accounting, auditing, and financial reporting issues. In private practice, she has litigated patent and antitrust matters involving technology and handled challenging appeals. Keri thrives on taking complex or voluminous information, distilling it, and persuasively explaining it to a judge or jury.

At Baker Marquart, Keri’s practice is on the cutting edge of the legal landscape involving financial technology, and she enjoys helping entrepreneurs and leaders navigate that evolving
landscape. Keri also enjoys tax, securities, accounting and financial matters that draw on her extensive experience in those areas.

Representative Engagements

Represents companies and individuals in SEC investigations involving so-called “ICOs,” or initial coin offerings, involving the sale or distribution of digital assets.
Represents clients in customer and industry FINRA arbitrations.
Represents individual executives or employees in government investigations, including responding to document and testimony subpoenas, and representing witnesses in testimonies or depositions before government agencies.
Represented an individual in a joint investigation by the SEC and a New Jersey United States Attorney’s Office involving a blockchain company, resulting in no charges against the individual or his company.
Obtained declination by the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, in matter in which her client was accused of cross-border structuring as part of an alleged unlicensed money remission scheme involving Bitcoin.