David Chaiken is an Atlanta-based former federal prosecutor with more than 20 years of experience handling sophisticated financial fraud and securities matters. He represents companies and individuals in white collar litigation and investigations, complex business litigation, civil and criminal government enforcement actions, and corporate internal investigations.
Mr. Chaiken is recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Legal 500, and The Best Lawyers in America as one of the preeminent lawyers in his field for government investigations, white collar defense, securities litigation, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement matters. In connection with his SEC defense practice, The Best Lawyers in America recently selected him as its 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Atlanta for “Litigation: Regulatory Enforcement (SEC, Telecom, Energy).”
According to Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, clients and colleagues describe him as “fantastic,” “smart,” “very thorough and detail-oriented,” “very hard-working,” and “a great teammate and partner” who provides “excellent legal advice.”
He applies the same commitment to excellence in his business disputes practice, in which he litigates complex civil cases in state and federal courts and alternative dispute resolution forums, typically involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and securities and shareholder claims.
Mr. Chaiken has tried numerous white collar cases to verdict, including cases involving securities fraud, tax fraud, and healthcare fraud. He assists clients with multi-agency investigations across the country involving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), SEC, and other state and federal regulators. He also regularly leads corporate internal investigations on behalf of companies, boards of directors, board committees, and other entities into alleged financial misconduct by directors, officers, and employees, bringing the credibility and integrity of a former DOJ prosecutor to the task.
Before co-founding Chaiken Ghali LLP, Mr. Chaiken was a top white collar partner in an AmLaw 50 law firm, served for nearly a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Economic Crimes Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, practiced in the Atlanta and San Francisco offices of elite global law firms, and clerked for U.S. District Judge William C. O’Kelley of the Northern District of Georgia.
As an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta for almost ten years, Mr. Chaiken led all phases of the investigation and prosecution of corporate and white collar crimes through trial and appeal. Significant matters that he handled included one of the largest law firm trust account embezzlements in U.S. history, a public company accounting and securities fraud case, high-profile insider trading schemes, fraud and self-dealing by bank insiders, and a variety of sophisticated tax fraud, healthcare fraud, wire fraud, and public corruption cases. During his tenure with the DOJ, Mr. Chaiken regularly handled parallel proceedings with the SEC and served as a member of the DOJ’s Securities & Commodities Fraud Working Group.
In addition to his litigation and investigations matters, Mr. Chaiken has been retained to testify as an expert witness in both the United States and the United Kingdom on U.S. law and DOJ policies and procedures governing the investigation and prosecution of corporate and white collar crime.
His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Law360, Bloomberg, Forbes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other local and national media outlets, and he is frequently asked to comment on emerging white collar issues.
Mr. Chaiken is admitted to practice law in Georgia and California.