1. Can you describe your practice?
I focus mainly on helping companies, their boards and management navigate crises. I regularly advise on sensitive and complex strategic, legal and governance matters regarding a sweep of white collar and related issues, including accounting, financial reporting and disclosure matters, allegations of insider trading or executive misconduct, and anticorruption issues, among others. This work often involves leading internal investigations and responding to inquiries and enforcement actions by the SEC, the DOJ and other regulators—local, federal and international—and prosecutors regarding all kinds of alleged corporate misconduct. I also have significant experience trying civil and criminal cases.
2. You co-head Paul, Weiss’s newly formalized Investigations Group. Investigations is an area where the firm has long been known as very strong. What prompted the firm to launch a formal practice now, and what distinguishes the firm’s investigations capabilities in the legal market?
The Investigations Practice Group grew out of the firm’s extensive experience leading many of the most sensitive and complex investigations across industries and areas of law. It provides our clients with a multidisciplinary response to government investigations in line with the all-tools approach that U.S. regulators have been stressing in recent years.
A government inquiry these days may involve various local, federal and international regulators, and it may include accounting, corruption, cybersecurity, privacy, employment and a host of other issues. Rapid technological development, such as in artificial intelligence, adds further complexity.
Reflecting this cross-agency collaboration, we offer comprehensive investigations and regulatory defense capabilities, bringing together preeminent practitioners from numerous practice areas to meet our clients’ needs. Our team features a former U.S. Attorney General and a deep bench of former prosecutors and highranking officials at the DOJ, SEC, Treasury, FTC and other government agencies and departments, with expertise in all relevant practice areas and jurisdictions.
3. How much of your work falls into the bucket of actual white collar criminal work versus investigations?
My practice typically involves advising companies and their directors and officers on a mix of complex, often fast-moving internal investigations as well as regulatory and criminal investigations, including several of the most significant and high-profile matters in the country. I regularly represent clients in investigations involving the DOJ, SEC, state attorneys general and various other federal and state regulators and prosecutors.
In addition to helping my clients think through and address often existential criminal or regulatory issues, I also help them manage a variety of other significant business, public relations and governance implications.
4. You have represented both executives, boards and companies in SEC and DOJ investigations and enforcement actions. Are there different strategies and skills you draw on depending on whether the client is an individual or a business?
Both company and individual representations present a host of complex challenges and require careful weighing of various considerations to arrive at the best strategies. Company representations also develop in several dimensions, potentially involving criminal or regulatory exposure, parallel civil litigation, employment issues, disclosure issues and a host of other interrelated matters that need to be addressed as part of a holistic strategy.
It is often said that there’s a heightened human element when you represent an individual, and it’s certainly true that you form a meaningful bond with an individual client. However, in my experience, there is a similar personal connection with company clients and the individuals, whether on the board or in the legal and business functions, that you work closely with. If you’re doing your job well, you feel the same commitment to provide absolutely excellent service, whether your client is an individual or a corporation.
5. How did you end up in this area of practice, and what do you like best about your work?
My current practice is an outgrowth from my time as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the Southern District of New York, where worked for six plus years including as a supervisor of two units. There was also an earlier formative experience following law school graduation, at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where I worked on the prosecution of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic for attempted genocide and other war crimes. The matter was obviously different from the corporate defense work I focus on now, but it was a tremendous introduction to the world of complex, high-stakes and high-profile government investigations.
The white collar and investigations space appeals to me for a variety of reasons. I very much enjoy the fact-finding aspect—understanding what happened and why — and thinking through the potential consequences. And it is very gratifying to take all these facts, put them in their appropriate context and present to regulators or prosecutors a credible, coherent case that’s most advantageous to my client.
I feel very fortunate that innovative, industry-leading clients trust me with their most significant legal challenges. It is a real privilege to get to understand my clients’ business and objectives, analyze the facts and circumstances in question, and the potential risk or opportunity, and help them effectively address the many interrelated issues that regularly arise.
6. Could you discuss the importance of having a background in – and connections with – the government in the area of investigations and white collar defense?
Government experience is certainly very helpful in investigations and white collar defense work. Having first-hand experience with how government agencies conduct investigations, what objectives or personalities drive those offices, and what they expect from subjects and targets of investigations allows you to provide assured, better-informed advice to your clients, and identify where there are opportunities to protect them and more efficiently advance their interests.
For me, the high-stakes corporate investigations and prosecutions I led and tried as a prosecutor honed my skills and helped me become a well-rounded, confident
litigator.
7. What is the regulatory and enforcement climate like at the moment, particularly with regards to enforcement in the securities area?
The regulatory and enforcement environment is very active, in terms of both the number and the aggressiveness of investigations.
At a basic level, public company investigations frequently involve the same ageold issues, such as accounting or financial reporting issues, and various fundamental governance considerations. However, there is an increased focus on certain areas, such as anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and a variety of other compliance matters, while certain issues that would previously have been dealt with at the civil and regulatory level are increasingly the subject of prosecution.
Additionally, as the breadth and depth of investigative measures has expanded, inquiries raise a host of privacy issues and can be more invasive than they used to be — such as requiring access to personal devices. We try to be very attuned to such concerns and ameliorate them as much as possible for our clients.
8. Can you identify any peers in this practice area that you admire?
I don’t have to look farther than my Paul, Weiss partners to find a wealth of tremendous white collar and investigations lawyers, with whom I have the privilege to collaborate day in and day out.
Jeannie Rhee and John Carlin, my co-chairs in the Investigations Practice Group, are both phenomenal lawyers and wonderful people, and have invaluable highlevel government experience—Jeannie as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, and John as Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General, as the DOJ’s top national security official, and as FBI Chief of Staff.
I have worked with, and learned from, Lorin Reisner for a long time, from when we were both at the SDNY. Lorin has held leadership roles at both the SDNY and the SEC and is, among other things, one of the standout attorneys nationwide for securities regulatory defense.
There are many more outstanding Paul, Weiss lawyers who practice in this space than I could possibly name, but I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention three exceptional leaders I have long admired: former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a true pioneer in the industry and as respected and sought-after an investigations attorney as there is; Ted Wells, who has been one of the nation’s most revered trial lawyers and corporate counselors throughout his career; and our Chairman Brad Karp, who is both a litigator and strategic advisor of rare ability and accomplishment, and a visionary leader in the private bar.
I feel very fortunate to be part of such a star-studded but also truly collaborative team at Paul, Weiss.
