Oliver Attinger reports for Nonbillable that a longtime Cravath employee has been charged with insider trading. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed a criminal complaint on Nov. 12 against Chetram Balli, 54, who they say had worked as a document processing specialist at a major New York law firm since about 1989. The complaint does not name the firm; Nonbillable identifies it as Cravath. Prosecutors allege he traded in the shares of five companies between April 2025 and October 2026, ahead of deal announcements that included Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and made more than $70,000.
These are allegations. The government’s own release says the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Cravath told Nonbillable he was not a member of its legal staff and is no longer with the firm, and that it is cooperating fully with the authorities.
The lesson for in-house lawyers is about plumbing, not people. According to the release, the job included creating and revising legal documents and submitting filings through the SEC’s EDGAR system. Deal information passes through many hands on its way to a filing, and most of them do not belong to lawyers. When you review a firm, ask how it limits and logs access to your matters for everyone who touches them, and how it checks staff trading against its restricted list. Our guide to managing outside counsel covers what to ask. If securities work is your day job, see who is hiring on our securities counsel jobs page.
As U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. puts it in the release: “As alleged, Balli repeatedly traded on inside information that he misappropriated from his employer…”
Read: Ex-Cravath employee charged over insider trading tied to major client M&A deals at Nonbillable