Thompson Coburn has added Craig R. Haughton as a partner in the firm’s Financial Services and Business Litigation practices in New York, deepening its bench for financial services litigation, fiduciary litigation, and FINRA defense, at a time of significant growth for the firm’s national practice. Haughton joins from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he served as Executive Director and Compliance Officer for the Northeast business unit. He brings a unique combination of in-house and outside-counsel experience across financial markets, enterprise risk, and regulatory compliance.
“Craig is exactly the kind of lawyer we are building this practice around,” said Zachary Newman, Co-Chair of Thompson Coburn’s Business Litigation and Fiduciary Litigation Groups. “We are growing our financial services litigation platform aggressively—in New York and across our offices nationally—and Craig’s command of how a global institution manages risk, compliance, and litigation gives our bank, lending, and broker-dealer clients an advantage that is difficult to replicate. He strengthens us on day one, and he reflects the caliber of talent that continues to be drawn to Thompson Coburn.”
At Morgan Stanley, Haughton led the day-to-day compliance function for a Northeast business unit of more than 3,000 financial advisors, working closely with the firm’s Legal, Risk, and Compliance leadership on the issues that most often give rise to disputes and regulatory scrutiny in the wealth management industry. He maintains Series 7, 9, and 10 licenses.
That in-house vantage point is what makes Haughton’s arrival especially valuable to the firm’s FINRA defense and bank litigation capabilities. Having worked inside a global financial institution, he understands how supervisory and compliance decisions are made and documented and how risk is weighed long before a dispute arises. For the firm’s financial institution clients, that experience translates into more incisive enforcement defense before FINRA, the SEC, and the DOJ; more effective internal investigations; and sophisticated litigation strategy grounded in the actual operations of banks, lenders, corporate fiduciaries, and broker-dealers.
Before moving in-house, Haughton spent 12 years at McGuireWoods LLP, representing financial institutions, accounting firms, and government contractors in litigation, arbitration, investigations, and enforcement proceedings across the country.
Haughton’s practice spans the full range of disputes facing financial institutions, including regulatory enforcement and FINRA proceedings, lender liability, individual and class action commercial litigation, compliance counseling, internal investigations, and fiduciary, trusts, and estates litigation.
“Craig adds real depth across the disputes our financial institution clients care about most—FINRA and regulatory defense, lender liability, private banking and bank litigation, and fiduciary, trusts, and estates matters,” said Stephen Grable, Co-Chair of the firm’s Banking and Financial Services Litigation and Fiduciary Litigation groups. “His regulatory and compliance fluency complements the trial and appellate work our team does every day for lenders and fiduciaries, and it expands what we can deliver for clients in New York and nationally.”
“Thompson Coburn is the perfect platform for my return to private practice,” said Haughton. “I was drawn by the track record Zachary Newman and Steve Grable have built representing financial institutions in lender, fiduciary, and banking disputes—including hard-fought trial and appellate victories—and by the firm’s decades of expertise in the financial services space. I look forward to working with my new colleagues on behalf of premier financial institutions and helping to deepen and expand those relationships.”
Haughton joins a national financial services practice with a clear mandate to grow. From its New York office—established in 2021 through the firm’s combination with Hahn & Hessen and built on nearly a century of experience in commercial finance, lending, and complex litigation—to its offices in Birmingham, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., Thompson Coburn represents money center banks, regional and community lenders, broker-dealers, private equity firms, hedge funds, and corporate fiduciaries at every stage of the lending and dispute lifecycle
Haughton earned his LL.M. in Securities and Financial Regulation from Georgetown University Law Center and his J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law. He holds a B.S. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.
Haughton’s arrival follows the recent addition of counsel Lisa Bordoff Procopio to the firm’s New York office. Procopio brings an unusually broad skill set that bridges private client and corporate work. She designs and implements comprehensive, multi-generational estate plans—including wills, trusts, trust decanting, and wealth-transfer and charitable-giving structures—and counsels fiduciaries on probate, estate and trust administration, and trust accountings before the New York Surrogate’s Courts, working closely with the firm’s Fiduciary Litigation practice. Equally significant is her depth in corporate and transactional tax: She advises on the tax-efficient sale and acquisition of business interests, corporate recapitalizations and restructurings, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs, and tax-free reorganizations, and represents individuals and fiduciaries before the IRS. Before joining Thompson Coburn, she practiced in the tax departments of several prominent New York law firms and Big Four consulting firms.
“Lisa offers an exceptional combination of trusts and estates planning and administration alongside significant corporate tax experience, a pairing that is genuinely difficult to find,” added Newman. “She adds capabilities in New York specifically that strengthen our fiduciary litigation practice, deepen our private client offering, and expand our corporate tax capabilities, allowing us to deliver integrated counsel to clients across all three.”
With these additions, Thompson Coburn continues to deepen its financial services and fiduciary litigation capabilities in New York and across the country. The firm’s growth reflects a deliberate strategy, assembling a national team with the trial experience, regulatory fluency, and industry knowledge that financial institutions increasingly demand.
