Joanna C. Hendon

Partner

Joanna C. Hendon is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Ms. Hendon's practice focuses on white collar criminal matters, regulatory enforcement actions, and complex civil litigation.

Ms. Hendon represents corporations and individuals in investigations and prosecutions by the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC, local prosecutors, and state Attorneys General. She has represented clients in cases involving allegations of insider trading, false or misleading corporate disclosures and other violations of the securities laws, off-label marketing by pharmaceutical companies, antitrust violations, conflicts of interest, perjury, bribery, obstruction, tax fraud, money laundering, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Ms. Hendon also has more than 20 years of civil litigation experience.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Hendon was in-house counsel at Merrill Lynch & Co., where she was responsible for all white collar and significant civil enforcement matters for the firm. Ms. Hendon regularly appeared before the U.S. Department of Justice, local prosecutors, the SEC, FINRA, and the New York State Attorney General (NYAG) in matters affecting the firm's investment banking, lending, sales and trading, and broker-dealer businesses. She also prepared witnesses to testify before Congress and conducted numerous internal investigations.

Before working in-house, Ms. Hendon was in private practice and an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the Southern District of New York. As an AUSA, Ms. Hendon was a member of the Southern District's Securities & Commodities Fraud Task Force, where she was the lead prosecutor in numerous jury trials and complex investigations. In 2000, Ms. Hendon received the U.S. Attorney General's John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement for Trial of Litigation, the Department of Justice's highest honor for the trial of a case.

In private practice, Ms. Hendon represented corporate clients and individuals in complex civil litigation and white collar and regulatory matters. Representative criminal and regulatory matters include:

• The defense of an oil company in an FCPA investigation in the Southern District of New York.
• The defense of current and former employees of pharmaceutical company in criminal investigation of alleged off-label marketing.
• The defense of the national sales force of a pharmaceutical company in a Department of Justice inquiry and related civil litigation concerning the marketing of a popular drug.
• The defense of employees of a U.K. bank in a criminal investigation concerning Internet gambling.
• The defense at trial of an analyst accused of criminal insider trading in connection with the "expert network" prosecutions brought by the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York.
• The defense of employees of a pharmaceutical company in a Department of Justice off label marketing investigation
• The defense of the former ImClone CEO in an insider trading, perjury, and obstruction prosecution by the Southern District of New York.
• The defense of an investment bank in a criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York concerning tax shelters.
• The defense of a CFO of an insurance company in securities fraud investigations by the Southern District of New York and the SEC.
• The defense of a senior executive of an investment bank in SEC, NYSE, and NYAG investigations concerning market timing and the late trading of mutual fund securities.

Recent civil representations include the defense at trial of a public company in a billion-dollar breach of contract claim, the defense of an investment bank in a securities class action and related bankruptcy and multidistrict litigation following the collapse of Enron and Worldcom, and the defense of prominent law firms in malpractice and securities class actions.

After completing law school, Ms. Hendon served as a law clerk to Judge Frank M. Coffin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1991, where she was notes editor for the Yale Law Journal, and her B.A. (Hon.) in English from the University of British Columbia in 1987, where she was the valedictorian of the Faculty of Arts.

Ms. Hendon is currently an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where she teaches a course in insider trading and other securities fraud issues. For the past four years she has served as the co-chair of the White Collar Litigation Subcommittee of the NYSBA.

Ms. Hendon is admitted to practice in New York.