Government Experience and Regulatory Expertise
We represent public and private companies and executives in criminal and civil investigations before the U.S. Department of Justice and its U.S. Attorney’s Offices as well as other federal agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Customs and Border Protection, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Food and Drug Administration. We also work on investigations conducted by Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General and state attorneys’ offices across the country. Our lawyers have tried approximately 200 criminal and civil cases and have hundreds of hours of federal and state grand jury experience. We have conducted numerous internal investigations and regularly represent clients in congressional investigations, advise clients on a wide variety of compliance issues and audit ethics and compliance programs to ensure that they meet the requirements of the United States Sentencing Guidelines for Corporations.
Our government investigations attorneys are retained to defend companies and their senior executives in an array of contexts, including against charges of:
We are very experienced in internal and independent investigations, witness interviews, document collection, retention, production and analysis, as well as proactively assembling corroborative evidence in our client’s favor. While we pride ourselves on being first and foremost trial lawyers, our greatest successes are our least publicized ones—those in which a criminal investigation is never commenced, or where it is terminated without any charges being brought. When necessary, however, we will use our expertise to defend our client vigorously and with the highest professional and ethical standards throughout the investigation and trial of the matter.
In addition to our work with clients once a problem has arisen, we are well-versed in guiding companies to design compliance programs that prevent, deter and detect misconduct. We offer a broad range of services to help our clients implement or upgrade their ethics and compliance programs, including risk assessments, web-based and live training, compliance investigations and independent monitoring.
Accolades
Our government investigations attorneys are respected practitioners among their peers, as well as federal and state law enforcement. During their government service, they won distinguished service awards, such as the Department of Justice’s highest award, the Edmund J. Randolph Award; the Attorney General’s Special Commendation Award; Director’s Awards; and numerous special awards and commendations from federal and state law enforcement for their excellent work. Our attorneys have experience as presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys, Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Associate Counsel to the President of the United States, Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief of Staff for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, Senior Trial Attorney, Assistant Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section of the United States Department of Justice and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the United States. More than two dozen members of the practice served as Assistant United States Attorneys and Department of Justice trial attorneys.
Bringing Value to Our Clients
We understand the stress, distractions and difficulties a government investigation can cause and the importance of protecting a company’s brand and an individual’s reputation. Our goal is to proactively resolve the issues and guide our clients through this difficult and often unfamiliar process in a cost-effective and efficient manner. When an issue arises, we mobilize quickly, bringing our expertise to bear to work toward a positive resolution. Alston & Bird’s government investigations team stands ready and able to guide and protect both companies and individuals in today’s climate of heightened governmental scrutiny and criminal enforcement.