The Corporate Defense & Investigations Practice Group at Proskauer Rose LLP represents individuals and corporate clients in internal organizational investigations and criminal proceedings. For more information about this practice area, contact:
Proskauer's Corporate Defense & Investigations Practice Group serves the needs of clients which are the subject of ever-increasing governmental investigative intrusions into the daily activities of businesses and individuals. This encroachment has been caused by the proliferation of criminal and civil enforcement laws and regulations. Severe enforcement consequences exist where the line separating civil and regulatory infractions from criminal offenses is frequently blurred. And when this vague line of demarcation is coupled with a broader application of the concepts of "willful blindness" and "reckless disregard," the present enforcement climate transfers to clients the burden of demonstrating compliance, rather than requiring the government to prove culpability. The importance of responding expeditiously and professionally to allegations of impropriety has increased dramatically.
Among the attorneys in this group are:
- Robert Cleary, former United States Attorney for New Jersey and Chief of the Major Crimes Unit for the New York United States Attorney's Office;
- Dieter Snell, former New York Deputy Attorney General under Eliot Spitzer, Senior Counsel to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States ("the 9/11 Commission") and Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
- Sarah Gold, former Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York; whose work includes representing clients in many securities matters including defending class-action lawsuits, and handling investigations as well as other civil and criminal matters
- Thomas Sjoblom, a 20 year veteran of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who served as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel in the Division of Enforcement; Branch Chief and then Special Counsel to the Division of Market Regulation; and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the Western District of New York, and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
- Mark Biros, former Deputy Chief, Felony Trial Division, United States Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., who resides in the Firm's Washington office;
- Anthony Pacheco, former Assistant United States Attorney, Central District of California, in the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles;
With significant experience as former prosecutors and defense lawyers, these Proskauer attorneys have used their legal acumen and professional experiences in representing both individual and organizational clients in enforcement agency investigations, when conducting internal organizational investigations in response to allegations of corporate and organizational impropriety, and during federal and state criminal proceedings. More specifically, Proskauer's criminal defense attorneys have handled matters involving the following substantive areas:
- bribery and official corruption allegations
- antitrust law violations
- health care fraud
- securities fraud, including allegations of material misrepresentations and insider trading
- government procurement fraud, including defective pricing and false claims
- financial institution and insurance fraud
- environmental law violations relating to hazardous waste disposal and the Clean Air Act
- money laundering investigations
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters
- customs fraud
- Food and Drug Act violations
- income tax evasion, including false filings and conspiracy cases involving corporate, partnership, individual income, sales and excise taxes
In these matters, Proskauer's lawyers have appeared as counsel for witnesses, subjects and targets in federal and state courts throughout the United States. They have been active at every stage of a criminal case, from the commencement of the investigation, the grand jury stage, trial and post-trial proceedings. As former prosecutors, these lawyers are familiar with the considerations normally weighed in a decision to charge. Because of this familiarity, they have frequently been successful in persuading prosecutors to refrain from bringing criminal charges.
For Proskauer, keeping clients' potential criminal matters out of the limelight -- avoiding the harsh glare of publicity -- is of paramount concern. Working quietly and behind the scenes where appropriate, our criminal defense attorneys have negotiated immunity and non-prosecution agreements. More recently, they have engineered global dispositions that simultaneously resolve parallel federal and state criminal, civil and administrative actions.
The advent of the United States Sentencing Guidelines for organizations has placed a premium on the development of corporate compliance programs and internal investigative procedures. Working with their corporate and regulatory counterparts within the Firm, our criminal defense lawyers have created a set of standardized criteria for qualifying compliance programs under the Sentencing Guidelines. When handling internal investigations, our attorneys are mindful of the potential collateral consequences associated with the matters under investigation, earning the trust of those persons whose conduct is under scrutiny while ethically preserving the legal interests of both the organization and the individual, preserving the attorney-client privilege, shielding the investigative results from inappropriate disclosure, and balancing corporate cooperation with government authorities against the need to protect an organization's legal interests.
Given the drastic business penalties that flow from any adverse disposition in a criminal case - debarment or exclusion from doing both federal and state government work, and disqualification from myriad business and professional opportunities - Proskauer's lawyers (whether in the area of government procurement, health care, financial institution fraud, or securities matters) are particularly careful to fashion appropriate strategies and dispositions that avoid proliferating these "business death penalties."
Apart from their practical experience in responding to investigative inquiries and representing clients in pending proceedings, Proskauer's criminal defense contingent counsels businesses and individuals as to those courses of conduct that may be pursued to avoid culpability. By speaking to corporate management groups, industry councils, gatherings of in-house attorneys and others, our lawyers assist the business community in navigating the plethora of recently enacted criminal provisions. Attorneys in the group also teach criminal law-related courses to law students and to in-house corporate legal departments and Bar Association groups.
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