Frey, Stephen S.

Bill Freeman litigates securities and complex commercial cases. For over 30 years he has represented companies, officers, directors, and investors in a wide array of proceedings. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 40 class action and derivative suits, litigated corporate control and merger-related cases, and defended dozens of investigations and enforcement actions by the SEC and other regulators. He has extensive jury trial experience and has led more than 25 internal investigations in the last five years.

Bill also advises public companies and their officers, directors, principal shareholders, and underwriters on a broad range of issues including public disclosure, fiduciary duties, insider trading, and litigation risk reduction.

Prior to joining Jones Day in 2010, Bill represented the former general counsel of McAfee in the successful defense of an SEC enforcement action alleging stock option backdating. The result obtained for the client was unprecedented in all of the SEC's backdating cases: the SEC voluntarily dismissed all charges against the general counsel with prejudice. He also secured numerous victories in securities cases on motions, in trial and on appeal, for a broad range of companies including BroadVision, Ditech Networks, First Virtual, InterMune, iPass, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Vans, Vaxgen, and Verity.

At the start of his career, Bill served with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he won significant monetary recoveries for the government in cases of official corruption, procurement fraud, and abuse of government programs.

Bill is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of California, and the Santa Clara County Bar Association.