First: what the subpoena actually is.
An SEC subpoena is a formal demand - for documents, testimony, or both - issued under a formal order of investigation. It means the Commission's Enforcement Division believes you have information relevant to a possible securities-law violation. It does not mean you have been charged, and it does not necessarily mean you are the target. But everything you produce and say from this moment can shape whether a civil inquiry stays civil - or crosses to the Department of Justice.
Witness, subject, or target - which are you?
The single most important question - and the subpoena will not answer it for you. Counsel can. One of the first things we do is contact the staff attorney on the matter and take a read: what the investigation covers, where you sit in it, and what the government already has. That conversation, handled right, changes the entire posture of the response.
If this is your situation
Stop reading. Start defending.
The three mistakes that make it worse.
Deleting anything. Destruction of documents after a subpoena is itself a crime - and it converts witnesses into defendants. Preserve everything, immediately. Responding alone. The scope of a subpoena is negotiable; privileged material is protectable; testimony can be prepared. None of that happens without counsel. Talking about it. Conversations with colleagues about the investigation can become obstruction theories. The only safe conversation is the privileged one.
What we do in the first week.
Preservation goes out on day one. We contact Enforcement staff, negotiate scope and timing, and begin the privilege review before anything is produced. If testimony is demanded, preparation starts early - because SEC testimony is taken under oath, transcribed, and shareable with criminal prosecutors. The goal, always: keep a civil matter civil, and end it as early as the facts allow.