Kenneth Cunningham

Executive summary

Ken Cunningham is the chief legal officer at Grant Thornton LLP and is a member of the firm’s Senior Leadership Team. He runs the firm’s enterprise risk management function and is responsible for defending the firm and its personnel in regulatory and litigation matters, including class action securities litigation and professional malpractice litigation. He also conducts training for the firm’s personnel and counsels senior leadership and all service lines on risk and regulatory issues.

 
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Cunningham was a senior counsel with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C., where he investigated matters involving complex financial fraud. Before joining the SEC, Cunningham was a litigator in private practice. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Loyola University School of Law, where he taught a seminar on SEC enforcement procedures, and regularly speaks as a panelist about liability issues faced by accountants and auditors.

Professional qualifications and memberships

• Bar Admission — Illinois
• American Bar Association
• Association of Corporate Counsel
• Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni Inc.

Community involvement

• Court Theatre, Board of Trustees

Presentations and publications

• Co-author, Overview of Key Defenses Available in a Section 11 Claim Against an Auditor, Accountants’ Liability: Litigation and Issues in the Financial Crisis, ALI-ABA Course of Study Materials, July 2010.

Education

• JD, Vanderbilt University, School of Law
• BA, Political Science, Vanderbilt University