David Karp

David Karp brings more than 20 years of experience as a government investigator and advisor, in-house counsel, and outside counsel to representing clients facing parallel investigations and regulatory matters.

David’s practice covers congressional and global legislative inquiries, SEC and other regulatory enforcement subpoenas and Civil Investigative Demands, and internal investigations. In these inquiries, he represents companies and individuals through the lifecycle, from the first letter through document production, interviews, and hearings. In civil litigation, he defends complex commercial disputes.

Before joining Scale, David was an Associate General Counsel at McKinsey & Company, where he managed a portfolio that included multinational regulatory and internal investigations, congressional inquiries, global legislative inquiries, and litigation. He also was the Global Legal Lead for Anti-Corruption, where he advised consulting teams in more than 30 countries and helped design its anti-corruption program across more than 65 offices.

For 4 years, he served as counsel to three successive Division Directors in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, the SEC’s largest Division (more than 1000 full-time employees). In that role, he advised the Directors on Congressional inquiries and requests for technical assistance on proposed legislation and advising on enforcement priorities, investigation policy, and resources.

Before joining the Division’s front office, David was a Senior Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. His investigative work focused on financial reporting fraud and on registration and disclosure failures at financial institutions. For this work, he received the Division Director’s Award on three separate occasions.
David also spent a year as Senior Counsel to the House Financial Services Committee, where he co-led an investigation of anti-money-laundering compliance at multinational banks and advised on proposed legislation amending the federal securities laws.

Before joining the federal government, David worked for four years at a large, international law firm and two years at an elite litigation boutique, where he handled an array of civil and criminal matters, argued motions and tried cases in federal court, defended clients against securities class actions and derivative lawsuits, and led internal investigations involving alleged violations of US and global anti-corruption laws. He also clerked for the late Hon. Jan E. DuBois of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Outside of work, David serves on the Board of Governors of Charles E. Smith Life Communities, a nonprofit senior living campus that provides a full continuum of care for older adults.