Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler

Global

Head Office Address:
40 Wall Street, 53rd Floor
New York, NY 10005
United States

Telephone:+1 212 397 3370
Fax:
Email:

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Key contacts:

Barry Pollack: Partner
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Julie Withers : Partner
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Quick facts:

Partners: 2
Other qualified practitioners: 2
Total number of lawyers: 4
Practitioners (worldwide): 30


Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler's Washington DC Office specializes in white collar defense and government investigations. It also has a strong appellate practice. Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler is an elite boutique with thirty attorneys, seven of whom are ranked by Benchmark Litigation as Litigation Stars, and seven of whom are ranked as Rising Stars.

Small by design, the firm was founded in 2009 with a singular end in mind: to produce superior results for its clients in an open and modern manner. We represent clients in the full spectrum of employment matters; criminal, regulatory and internal investigations; and commercial litigation and arbitration.

White Collar: HSW’s White Collar department defends individuals and companies charged in sophisticated federal criminal, state and other governmental and internal investigations, typically involving financial crimes, public corruption or national security. We represent clients in cases and investigations brought by U.S. Attorney’s offices, the SEC, the US Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve, and state and local prosecutors, among other agencies. These matters span a wide range of allegations, including insider trading, criminal antitrust, public corruption, crypto and NFTs related conduct, asset forfeiture, and other investigations. Because of our firm’s elite Employment Practice, we also specialize in representing senior executives in connection with internal, regulatory, and criminal investigations stemming from their employment.

Civil Litigation and Arbitration: HSW leverages its proven skill and reputation as a first-seat trial firm to achieve results — through trial or resolution—for plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial litigation and arbitration, including employment matters, founder’s disputes, breach of contract and business torts, securities and intellectual property cases. The firm specializes in matters demanding a high level of financial and commercial know-how. HSW tries cases in state and federal court, and in all major arbitral forums.

Employment: HSW has a first-tier national employment practice, and is best known for representing individual founders, partners, C-Suite executives, top producers, and practice leaders. In addition, the firm has a meaningful roster of company clients. Our practice includes litigation and arbitration, negotiation of employment agreements and separations, discreetly handling internal investigations, co-founder disputes, restrictive covenant disputes, and employment counseling. HSW is also known for its high-profile successes in FINRA arbitrations, having secured two of the six largest-ever FINRA awards. We advise clients on hundreds of millions of dollars of agreements, separations and disputes annually, and represent clients across a broad range of industries, including financial services, technology, real estate, media, health, travel, fashion, law, and entertainment.


Updated Sep 2025

Barry J. Pollack    
White collar crime    
bpollack@hs-law.com    

  • Represented Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who was charged with violating the Espionage Act for publishing classified information.  Negotiated agreement that resulted in his release.
       
  • After two lengthy federal criminal trials alleging price fixing in the poultry industry, both of which ended in mistrials with no convictions, obtained the dismissal of the case against his client.

  • Represented an executive of a government contractor charged with bribing a government official to obtain contracts, obtained acquittals on all counts following a federal criminal jury trial in Virginia.

District of Columbia
1775 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 650
Washington, D.C. 20006
T:
+11 202 617 5971
W:
https://hs-law.com