Leslie R. Caldwell

Partner

Leslie R. Caldwell, formerly the Director of the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force, is co-chair of Morgan Lewis's Corporate Investigations and White Collar Practice. Her practice concentrates on internal investigations and defense of companies and individuals accused by the government of involvement in white collar crime, SEC or other regulatory violations, and other crises. She leads a national Morgan Lewis team that includes many former prosecutors with experience in major white collar matters across a wide range of industries. Ms. Caldwell is based in New York.

Ms. Caldwell served in the U.S. Department of Justice for 17 years. Most recently, she was selected by the Department to serve as leader of the special task force that was created to investigate the collapse of the Enron Corporation. As director of the Enron Task Force from 2002 until 2004, she oversaw all aspects of the complex investigation, which resulted in the prosecution of more than 30 individuals.

From 1999-2002, Ms. Caldwell served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, where she was chief of both the Criminal Division and the Securities Fraud Section. In the latter role, Ms. Caldwell spearheaded the creation of one of the nation's premier white collar crime prosecution groups, targeting corporate fraud in Silicon Valley. As criminal chief, Ms. Caldwell oversaw the office's major white collar prosecutions, including matters involving accounting fraud, insider trading, healthcare fraud, export controls violations, theft of intellectual property, environmental crime, bank fraud, money laundering, and computer crime.

Previously, Ms. Caldwell was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York. In that position, she successfully tried more than 30 cases, including several high-profile racketeering prosecutions, and argued more than 30 appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also held numerous management positions.

Ms. Caldwell is a frequent speaker on white collar issues and has spoken at NYU Law School, Boalt Hall School of Law, Georgetown University Law School, Wharton School, Columbia Business School, and Yale School of Management, to highlight a few. She also is a featured speaker at many industry, bar association, and professional conferences on the subject of white collar crime.

In 2007, Ms. Caldwell was one of 10 legal experts worldwide selected to conduct advocacy training for Sudanese human rights lawyers. This Darfur project, sponsored by the American Bar Association and the MacArthur Foundation, was designed to assist the Sudanese lawyers in representing victims of Darfur atrocities before the International Criminal Court.

Ms. Caldwell's recent representations include:

• Fortune 500 and other issuers, audit committees, board members, and executives in connection with parallel DOJ and SEC options timing investigations
• Two European pharmaceutical manufacturers in connection with DOJ investigations into drug marketing practices
• A Fortune 500 company in connection with a federal criminal tax investigation
• A major media company in connection with grand jury subpoenas served on a newspaper and its reporters
• The former general counsel of Monster.com in connection with a prosecution in the Southern District of New York
• The CEO of a major pharmaceutical wholesaler in connection with a criminal accounting fraud investigation
• A special committee of a biotechnology company in connection with an FDA investigation
• The CEO of a reinsurance company in connection with a criminal accounting inquiry
• The CEO of an insurance broker in connection with an embezzlement inquiry

Ms. Caldwell is admitted to practice in New York.