Mr. Fagel spent nearly 16 years with the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, serving in progressively senior roles including Enforcement Staff Attorney, Branch Chief, Associate Regional Director and Head of Enforcement, and, from 2008 to 2013, Regional Director. In that role, he managed more than 100 professionals responsible for the SEC’s Enforcement and Examination programs across Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, while overseeing significant investigations, litigation, examinations, and regulatory initiatives.

During his tenure at the SEC, Mr. Fagel conducted and supervised investigations involving public company disclosure and financial reporting, insider trading, and misconduct by investment advisers, investment companies, and broker-dealers. As Regional Director, he exercised senior decision-making authority over major enforcement matters, worked closely with SEC Commissioners and Division leadership, contributed to nationwide reforms of the agency’s Enforcement and Examination programs, and coordinated with federal and state regulators and criminal law enforcement authorities.

Following his government service, Mr. Fagel joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a partner in the firm’s San Francisco and Palo Alto offices, where he served as Co-Chair of the firm’s national Securities Enforcement Practice Group. His practice focused on representing public companies and executives, audit firms, financial institutions, and investment fund managers in investigations and examinations by the SEC, the Department of Justice, and other regulatory authorities.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Fagel was a litigation associate at Morrison & Foerster, where he represented technology companies, broker-dealers, and financial institutions in securities class actions, SEC investigations, and other commercial litigation.

Since retiring from full-time legal practice in 2019, Mr. Fagel has continued to provide consulting and expert witness services in matters involving SEC investigations, examinations, enforcement practices, and securities regulation. He has also served as a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, teaching Legal Writing, Federal Litigation, and Legal Ethics.

Mr. Fagel has served on the boards of the Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni and the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society. Mr. Fagel earned his J.D., with honors, from the University of Chicago Law School and his A.B. in Political Science from Princeton University.