We believe that lawyers with exceptional courtroom skills and substantial backgrounds in government investigations are more valuable today than ever before. Federal, state, and international authorities have dedicated unprecedented resources to investigating and prosecuting business conduct that may have been ignored only a few years ago. New statutes have lengthened prison terms and provided for increased criminal fines and civil penalties. Parallel investigations by criminal, civil, and even legislative authorities are now commonplace, raising the stakes for clients and requiring a coordinated and sophisticated response by counsel. Morgan Lewis is well prepared to respond to these challenges.
Our Corporate Investigations and White Collar Practice has a unique national presence, including former prosecutors and trial lawyers on the East and West Coasts, some of whom are considered to be the most highly respected criminal and regulatory defense lawyers in the country. The attorneys in the group have substantial government backgrounds and include a former U.S. attorney; the former head of the Justice Department’s Enron Task Force; 10 former assistant U.S. attorneys; former assistant district attorneys; and former high-ranking attorneys from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.
Our attorneys are poised to handle virtually every area of criminal and regulatory government enforcement, including securities fraud, healthcare enforcement and litigation, antitrust violations, tax fraud, environmental crimes, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, among others. Many of our attorneys have written and lectured extensively on issues relating to government prosecutions and investigations. The depth of our collective government experience provides us with a strategic understanding of all levels of government prosecutions as well as enhanced credibility with government attorneys and officials.
Our Focus
Our Corporate Investigations and White Collar Practice focuses on three broad areas of client service: corporate investigations and related crisis management, corporate and individual defense, and corporate compliance. We provide representation at every step of a corporate crisis, from the earliest stages of government investigations through trial. We also offer advice and counseling to our clients on how to avoid an expensive and distracting government investigation before it begins.
A brief outline of our services follows:
Corporate Investigations
We frequently conduct internal investigations for corporate boards, audit committees, and special committees. We are skilled at conducting these investigations quickly and efficiently, preserving relevant privileges and evaluating the risks and rewards of government cooperation. We have extensive backgrounds in navigating the complex accounting and financial disclosure issues that frequently arise in the course of these investigations. We know first-hand how prosecutors, investigators, and regulators think and what they expect.
Corporate and Individual Defense
We represent companies and individuals in all aspects of complex criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings brought by the government. We are highly knowledgeable in federal and state grand jury investigations involving allegations of criminal business conduct. We also represent clients in investigations by regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, or the Federal Reserve, and in investigations by self-regulatory organizations such as the National Association of Securities Dealers or the New York Stock Exchange.
Corporate Compliance
We also advise our clients on implementing and strengthening corporate compliance programs to help prevent potential problems before they occur. We have designed and assisted in implementing compliance programs for our clients in a wide variety of areas, including the formulation of programs and policies designed to prevent violation of government regulations involving health care, insider trading and other securities law matters, FCPA, antitrust, money laundering, the Patriot Act and Sarbanes-Oxley, and other regulations. We also regularly update our clients on actual or proposed changes to the Organizational Sentencing Guidelines, new or proposed legislation, and changes to government enforcement programs and priorities.
Our Experience
Our Corporate Investigations and White Collar Practice represents companies and individuals in the following major substantive areas:
Securities and Financial Services
The nation’s leading securities firms routinely turn to us for representation in high-profile government investigations and litigation involving securities fraud. We represent many of the largest securities and investment management firms, as well as their senior executives, in DOJ and SEC investigations and in other regulatory inquiries. We also frequently represent public companies and their senior officers in internal or government investigations involving issues of complex financial fraud and crisis management.
Healthcare Enforcement and Litigation
We have represented many pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers in investigations and litigation by federal and state authorities. We have counseled clients in nearly every sector of the healthcare industry, from pharmaceutical companies to medical device manufacturers to healthcare providers. Our extensive industry knowledge allows us to structure integrated solutions to the fraud and abuse concerns that often arise in all phases of our clients’ businesses, including financing, compliance, intellectual property, and litigation.
Antitrust/Cartel
Our Antitrust Practice is one of the most sophisticated in the United States. We frequently represent clients before competition and antitrust authorities in the United States, Canada, and the European Union in criminal and civil government investigations and proceedings concerning international cartels, price fixing, monopolization, mergers and acquisitions, and deceptive acts and practices.
Tax
Our attorneys have successfully navigated the full range of complex criminal and civil matters related to tax fraud and noncompliance. We regularly appear before the IRS and Treasury Department to seek published guidance and rulings on behalf of clients. Additionally, we handle a broad range of administrative tax disputes before the IRS and state tax authorities in the examination, investigation, and appellate stages. We also litigate criminal and civil tax cases in federal and state venues at both the trial and appellate levels.
Environmental and Workplace Safety
Our attorneys frequently defend clients against federal and state criminal charges and civil enforcement actions arising from environmental releases and catastrophic work place accidents. We are adept at managing and working through the complex issues raised during parallel investigations conducted by various federal and state agencies and the private civil actions that often result from industrial accidents and environmental releases. Our lawyers have been at the forefront in defending clients who are being investigated under the DOJ's recently announced initiative to prosecute workplace safety violations under criminal environmental statutes. Our know-how extends to Europe, where our Paris office includes a team of well-known white collar practitioners who concentrate on criminal investigations involving major workplace accidents.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
We bring a cross-disciplinary team of lawyers to address every aspect of FCPA counseling and response. From due diligence in mergers and acquisitions to compliance and training, our attorneys have the skills to help keep companies out of danger. When a potential problem arises, our experience in conducting internal investigations allows us to work on disclosure issues with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and we can defend the company or individuals in either criminal or civil proceedings. Our international presence allows us to respond effectively and quickly to any FCPA problem—wherever it arises.
Other Areas of Expertise
We also have extensive backgrounds in investigating and litigating allegations of government procurement fraud, technology and intellectual property crimes, trade secret theft, official misconduct, and obstruction of justice.