Government Enforcement Defense

Our trial lawyers have extensive experience aggressively defending clients in high-profile cases against the government. Our criminal and regulatory practice is primarily cross-border, often involving simultaneous investigations by law enforcement authorities in several countries. We are one of the only firms with former U.S. prosecutors permanently stationed in offices in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Lawyers With Government Insight.

Our trial lawyers have extensive experience aggressively defending clients in high-profile cases against the government. We are former government litigators with experience litigating disputes from both sides.

International Reach.

Our criminal and regulatory practice is primarily cross-border, often involving simultaneous investigations by law enforcement authorities in several countries. The team includes former U.S. prosecutors stationed not only in our U.S. offices, but throughout our offices in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. As a result, we have deep experience with international extradition, asylum and mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) issues, as well as with the laws that most often arise in international criminal cases, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), antitrust/competition laws, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Our team also handles matters involving forfeiture actions initiated as a result of alleged violations of economic sanctions regimes, including those arising out of the recent implementation of the previously suspended Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, among other statutes.

Award-Winning Results.

We are consistently ranked by Chambers & Partners for our white-collar crime and government investigations practice, which has noted that we are "a highly skilled, highly experienced and nimble group” with “an incredibly strong reputation in trial defense.” Our criminal law practice has also been described as “efficient, responsive, and effective” by The Legal 500, particularly in the areas of anti-corruption and compliance. Moreover, we were also recognized as “Trial Firm of the Year” by the publication Main Justice for our precedent-setting defensive strategies used against the U.S. government at trial.

High-Profile Cases.

Most of our engagements involve matters in which our client is the subject of significant public attention. We regularly coordinate with PR/crisis communications firms to provide our client with an integrated defense on both legal and reputational fronts.

Industry and Regulatory Know-How.

We focus much of our work on the financial services, pharmaceutical, energy and defense contracting industries, among others, and have developed a deep reservoir of experience in substantive issues in these sectors.

Our lawyers are also skilled in dealing with most governmental and regulatory agencies, including:

  • the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC);
  • futures and options self-regulatory organizations, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) (formerly known as the New York Board of Trade), and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX);
  • the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
  • various divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York State Attorney General's Office;
  • the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division (CID);
  • the Federal Trade Commission (FTC);
  • the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA);
  • the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE);
  • the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC);
  • the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB);
  • the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC);
  • the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS);
  • the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC);
  • the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS);
  • the New York City Department of Investigations (DOI);
  • the Government Accountability Office (GAO);
  • the Federal Reserve Bank of New York;
  • the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC); and
  • the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

Serving as special counsel, we have also provided advice on certain international aspects of cases brought by various non-U.S. regulators, including:

  • the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA),
  • the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO),
  • the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA),
  • the Republic of Korea Public Prosecutor's Office (PPO), and
  • the Republic of Korea Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Representative Engagements: