George Canellos

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George S. Canellos is a partner in the New York office of the law firm Milbank LLP, and global head of the Litigation & Arbitration Group. In this role, which he assumed in 2014, he represents financial institutions, public companies, asset management firms, and individuals in government investigations and contested litigation in federal and state courts and advises clients on corporate governance and compliance with the securities and banking laws.
 
== Background ==
Canellos is the former co-director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Enforcement. He joined the commission as director of the New York regional office in July 2009. He moved to the enforcement division in 2012 as deputy director, then as acting director and eventually as co-director alongside Andrew J. Ceresney.
Canellos joined the SEC from the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, where he had been a partner in the litigation group of the firm's New York office since 2003. From 1994 through 2002, Canellos was a criminal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He served as chief of the major crimes unit where he supervised teams of prosecutors responsible for investigating and prosecuting large-scale financial crimes such as bank, insurance and tax fraud, foreign corrupt practices, money laundering, and many other forms of investment fraud.
While working in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Canellos served as senior trial counsel of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, and was responsible for the prosecution of many individuals and corporations for accounting fraud, investment advisory fraud, insider trading and other violations of the federal securities laws.
Canellos also served as Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney, one of five supervisors in charge of overseeing the briefing and argument of all criminal appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Canellos began his legal career in 1989 as a litigation associate at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, a New York law firm specializing in securities regulation and corporate control controversies.
== Education ==
Canellos earned his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1986 and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 1989.
== Recognition ==
In 1999, Canellos was named Prosecutor of the Year by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, for overall distinction as a federal prosecutor. In the same year, Canellos received the Director’s Award for Superior Performance from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys for distinction in the investigation and prosecution of a series of insider trading cases. In private practice, Canellos was recognized in Chambers USA's listing of America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America, and in International Who's Who Legal's listing of top business crime lawyers.
== References ==	
Category:Bios - Executives
Category:U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Former Employees
Category:Lawyers
Category:Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz - Former Employees
Category:U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Former Employees
Category:U.S. Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York - Former Employees