David B. Cosgrove

Mr. Cosgrove represents financial professionals and entities throughout the nation.  He has obtained over $8 million in Awards and settlements for his adviser clients in U-5/tortious interference cases in just the last 10 years.  He also assists advisers and broker-dealers with State, FINRA, and SEC inquiries, investigations, and enforcement actions.  Beyond the financial industry, he is an award winning trial attorney with a focus on commercial, and business divorce litigation.

Some of the results Mr. Cosgrove has obtained include:

• Obtained over $3.3 million for an investment adviser and compliance officer on U-5 defamation and business interference claims in a FINRA arbitration.
• Successfully represented an SEC whistleblower inside a large national broker-dealer.
• Obtained a pre-filing settlement for a compliance officer related to retaliation claims.
• Negotiated a settlement for a physician-investor on breach of fiduciary duty claims against an SEC-registered Investment Adviser.
• Represented multiple employees defending themselves against the aggressive enforcement of non-compete agreements and other post-employment restrictive covenants.
• Defended a Chief Financial Officer indicted for mail and wire fraud in furtherance of an alleged embezzlement scheme.
• Co-counseled plaintiffs in a complex personal-injury birth defect suit that ultimately settled for over $5 million.
• Represented a financial adviser against his former broker-dealer in a FINRA arbitration which resulted in a $600,000 award and full expungement of the broker's professional disclosure record on behalf of the financial adviser.
• Quickly negotiated a half-million-dollar settlement with a national broker-dealer for breach of fiduciary duty and fraudulent concealment.
• Represented a financial adviser against his former broker-dealer in a FINRA arbitration which resulted in a $3.25 million Award for the financial adviser and a full dismissal of the broker-dealer's $10 million counterclaim.
• Quickly negotiated a $2.4 million-dollar settlement with a national insurance company for an employer baited into an IRS-listed §419 employee benefit plan.
• Litigated the dismissal of a $900,000 lawsuit against a client and the payment of $250,000 to the Cosgrove Law Group, LLC client.
• Obtained payments for numerous clients from various broker-dealers and investment representatives for providing fraudulent or negligent investment advice, churning, and unauthorized transactions in client accounts.
• Obtained the complete dismissal of a corporate officer and brokers in a multi-million-dollar regulatory enforcement matter regarding the marketing of auction rate securities.
• Defended a client indicted for conspiring with a government agent to defraud the United States Government.
• Defended the President and CEO of a national mortgage broker company facing a federal prosecution regarding taxes and alleged bank fraud.
• Negotiated settlements on various state regulatory enforcement actions on behalf of his brokerage and precious metals industry clients.
• Provided expert witness analysis for Plaintiffs in securities litigation in areas such as §1035 real estate exchanges, TIC interests, private placements, and IRA’s.
• Prevailed over FINRA’s opposition on brokers' MC400 applications before the National Adjudicatory Council.

Prior to his return to private practice in 2006, Mr. Cosgrove served as Missouri’s Commissioner of Securities where he supervised attorneys, investigators and auditors investigating and prosecuting violations of the state’s securities laws. He was responsible for identifying practices or industry sectors appropriate for enforcement measures and also supervised the Securities Division’s registration and audit sections. Additionally, he interfaced with the SEC, NASD (now FINRA), NASAA (North American Securities Administrators Association), and various other state and federal enforcement agencies.

Previously, Mr. Cosgrove served as Chief Counsel for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office’s Consumer Protection Division where he supervised attorneys and investigators prosecuting civil and criminal litigation related to unlawful merchandising, fraud, and anti-trust, including national multi-state litigation. After that, he served as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Bob Holden.

Between 1999 and 2002, Mr. Cosgrove held the position of Chief Consumer Protection Prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in Boston, Massachusetts. He was responsible for criminal commercial fraud cases, including securities, mortgage, telemarketing, internet, unlicensed practitioners, and contract fraud. Mr. Cosgrove also worked as an Assistant District Attorney and a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the U.S. District of Massachusetts responsible for grand jury investigations and the litigation of a wide range of white-collar cases.

Between 1993 and 1999, Mr. Cosgrove served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office where he litigated both criminal and civil cases. This experience included dozens of jury trials and hundreds of depositions and evidentiary hearings. Mr. Cosgrove began his career in 1990 in private practice in the Commercial Litigation Department of Stinson in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mr. Cosgrove received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, cum laude, and his law degree from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Cosgrove received the distinguished Lon O. Hocker Award for trial advocacy from the Missouri Bar Foundation, as well as an Award of Appreciation from the North American Securities Administrators Association. His memberships include the Missouri Bar, the Massachusetts Bar, the United States Supreme Court, the United States District Court, the Western and Eastern Districts of Missouri, the United States District Court, the District of Massachusetts, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.