J. Michael Coombs

I was born in Salt Lake City and grew up in Utah and Montreal, Canada, where my father tried to start a small insurance company.  Our family returned to Salt Lake City in 1970.  After high school, I attended Westminster College in Salt Lake City during which I had an internship with a Utah Congressman in Washington DC.  Thereafter, I attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.  I served in the U.S. Marine Corps during 1974 thru 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War, and received an honorable discharge.  In 1977, I graduated from Gonzaga University.  In 1981, I graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, an adjunct school of Loyola Marymount University, with a Juris Doctor degree.  I began practicing law in Utah in May 1982.  My father was a stock promoter and that's how I became involved in securities work as a lawyer starting in 1982.  My law practice has involved anything to do with the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including corollary state securities acts and laws.  I have also defended people accused by the SEC of violating the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, not to mention the '33 and '34 Acts.  My practice has varied from doing securities and business litigation, including defending people charged with wrongdoing by the SEC, to doing transactional work of all sorts such as reverse merger and reorganization transactions, doing FINRA submissions for issuers, getting stock symbols for issuers, dealing with DTCC, and generally preparing SEC filings for small issuers.  I have also defended stock transfer agents in SEC enforcement actions.  Transactional work gives one a good perspective on what is important in litigation.  In the past, I have acted as an NASD Arbitrator, the predecessor organization to FINRA.  In 1997-1998, I served as Chairman of the Securities Section of the Utah State Bar, an elected position.  

I have been married 33 years and have 3 sons.  I am a member of the Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake.