Reed Smith has hired a partner from Vinson & Elkins to join its global regulatory enforcement group in Dallas.
Rebecca Fike, formerly senior counsel with the SEC, officially made the move to Reed Smith July 1. In an interview with The Texas Lawbook after one week on the job, she said she knew joining Reed Smith was the right move for her after meeting lawyers in the firm’s Dallas office during the interview process.
“Getting to know all the partners in the Dallas office, regardless of practice area, and seeing how excited they were about the firm, the growth and how busy they were and how they felt like a big part of the overall Reed Smith family” made her confident in making the switch, she said. “The [firm’s] reach was also really exciting to me. Reed Smith has offices in every U.S. city where the SEC has an office.”
Fike started her legal career at Vinson & Elkins in Austin in September 2008 and practiced there until March 2012 when she joined the SEC’s Division of Enforcement in Fort Worth.
After a decade working for the government, Fike returned to Vinson & Elkins, as a partner in Dallas, in February 2022.
Fike said another appealing part of moving to Reed Smith was the opportunity to diversify her practice a bit, working with clients in a broader array of industries and counseling clients before an SEC investigation is underway or a whistleblower complaint is lodged.
“When I first left the SEC three years ago, I knew SEC defense work was going to be a key part of my practice out in the world … but what I found over time was the white collar label that SEC defense work is in was more limiting than helpful for me specifically,” she said. “Unlike most people in white collar, who are fantastic trial lawyers and litigators, that’s not me. My goal is to never be in court. That’s not my world, and I don’t think that’s true for most people in my space.”
The managing partner of Reed Smith’s Dallas office, Omar Alaniz, issued a statement praising Fike as an “exceptional addition” to the team, noting specifically her enforcement background with the SEC. And Michael J. Lowell, chair of the firm’s global regulatory enforcement group, said Fike’s “arrival strengthens our ability to guide clients through their most sensitive matters with the views of an SEC insider.”
“Rebecca brings a decade of experience navigating the SEC landscape and a sophisticated understanding of how investigations unfold,” he said. “She is exactly the kind of trusted counsel companies need when facing government scrutiny — someone who can manage the process end to end, uncover the facts and help clients avoid surprises.”
Fike is a 2004 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2008.
Fike said most of her current SEC defense work is on investigations opened up during the Biden administration, and that new work there has lagged. But she’s noticed an uptick in internal investigations initiated by external auditors.
“It feels a bit like they’re filling that role while the SEC is figuring things out right now,” she said. “That has been a little different.”
Joining Fike in the move to Reed Smith from Vinson & Elkins is associate Carolyn “Caddie” Rietig, who worked alongside Fike for two years.
“Caddie has done a lot of work on my matters,” Fike said. “She’s still a junior associate but gravitated to government, regulatory and SEC defense work early. By the time I was leaving the firm, all of her hours were on my matters, so I was really excited when Reed Smith reached out to her, too.”
Rietig holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Texas Christian University and is a graduate of the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.