De Silva Law Offices

Focus and practice areas

Financial markets law is the center of the work at this Chicago firm. The navigation lists securities law, securities litigation, futures and derivatives law, regulatory and compliance, fintech law, and litigation services. That set points to work built around trading markets and the rules that govern them. Chicago is a center for futures and derivatives trading, which fits a firm built around those markets.

The site also names narrower work tied to those markets. It mentions securities investment consulting, hedge fund matters, event contracts, and prediction markets. Event contracts and prediction markets are newer instruments, so a firm naming them shows attention to how trading products are changing. In my opinion that mix reads as work that keeps pace with the market it serves.

Who leads the work

R. Tamara de Silva is the founding attorney. The firm also appears under the name The Law Offices of R. Tamara de Silva, which places her at the center of the work.

She has practiced law for more than twenty years. The attorneys page gives her the title of founding attorney and does not list a law school or year of admission. As a reviewer I read that two-decade span as the main credential the firm puts forward, and the biography stays focused on cases and settlements.

What the record shows

The firm highlights one case in particular. Attorney de Silva was lead counsel on the first class action involving market manipulation and spoofing in the futures markets under Dodd-Frank. Spoofing is the practice of placing orders a trader means to cancel, and Dodd-Frank gave regulators and private plaintiffs clearer grounds to challenge it. The label of first case matters because early actions under a new statute often set the pattern later courts follow.

The firm also reports results from 2025. It secured confidential settlements in federal litigation, including a class action against a large trading platform and a dispute under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. A class action against a trading platform usually gathers many account holders under one claim, while a Defend Trade Secrets Act case turns on protected business information that a party alleges was taken. The settlements are confidential, so the figures are not public. What the record shows is a firm active in federal court on both market conduct and trade secret claims.

How these matters usually proceed

Securities and futures disputes tend to follow a set path. A class action starts with a complaint, then moves through class certification, discovery, and either settlement or trial. Class certification asks whether the group shares enough common questions to proceed as one case, and that ruling often decides the shape of everything that follows. Market manipulation claims often turn on trading records and expert analysis of order data, which is why a case like the spoofing action can run for years.

Trade secret disputes under the Defend Trade Secrets Act run on a federal track as well. They often open with a request to preserve the information at issue. Discovery then examines how the material was used. Regulatory and compliance work comes earlier in that timeline, where a firm advises clients before a dispute reaches court. The firm's work covers both the advice that comes early and the disputes that reach court, which fits an attorney who has spent two decades in these markets.

Where regulatory work fits

Regulatory and compliance is another area on the firm's list. This work covers the rules that agencies like the SEC and the CFTC set for people who trade or advise on financial products. A compliance matter often starts before any dispute, when a fund or an adviser wants to register, file disclosures, or respond to an examination.

The overlap with litigation matters here. A lawyer who has argued market manipulation cases in federal court sees how a rule reads when it is tested. That view can shape the advice the firm gives a client who wants to stay clear of the same problems. In my opinion the pairing of courtroom work and compliance advice is a practical one for clients in trading markets.

Fintech and the newer markets

Fintech law is one of the firm's listed areas, and it links the securities work to newer products. The firm names event contracts and prediction markets, which are traded instruments that pay out based on outcomes. Event contracts pay a fixed amount when a stated event occurs, and prediction markets let participants trade on the odds of future results. These products raise questions about whether they count as securities or futures, and which regulator holds authority.

Compliance work here involves reading agency rules that are still forming and advising clients on registration and disclosure. Disclosure rules decide what a company must tell the public, and registration decides who may offer a product in the first place. A firm that already handles securities and derivatives law has the background such questions call for. De Silva Law Offices publishes its work at desilvalawoffices.com, and that work centers on Chicago and the federal courts.