Sharon Nelles and Julie Jordan attorneys for St. Joe Co in SEC settlement

Two women partners of Sullivan and Cromwell, Sharon Nelles and Julie Jordan, represented St. Joe Company in a recent accounting settlement with the SEC. St. Joe Co is a Watersound, Florida developer and landowner which the SEC claimed improperly overstated their residential real estate holdings after the financial crisis, and therefore materially overstated their earnings and assets during that period.  The SEC announced that St. Joe consented to pay 2.75 million fine.  The settlement has been widely reported in the news and two examples of the coverage are here and here.

Five individuals, including the former CEO and CFO, also settled with the SEC - which involved financial settlements in addition to a bar against appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant for the either two or three-year periods depending on the individual. The SEC probe began after an activist investor, David Einhorn, took an aggressive position that the company had overstated values.  Neither the company nor the individuals entered an admission.  

Sharon Nelles was honored this June by NOW in New York as a 2015 Women of Power & Influence Award for excelling in her field and blazing a path for the next generation of female leaders. In 2014 she was honored with the Women in Business Law Award in the financial regulation industry.  Julia Jordan is a member of the firm’s Women’s Initiative Committee, and active in the Women White Collar Defense Association. It is nice to see two successful women partners at the helm of case of this nature - a job well done.