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Our White Collar Practice Team is prepared to provide aggressive and sophisticated defense of white collar criminal matters, as well as civil and administrative litigation involving claims of fraud or other unlawful conduct. As the government continues to criminalize regulatory violations and billing errors, the need for "white collar" defense has gone from the boiler room to the board room. The most responsible, law-abiding business may find itself the target of a criminal investigation because of the alleged acts of its most junior employees.

The White Collar Practice Team is led by Geoffrey A. Goodman. Mr. Goodman was formerly Chief of the U.S. Attorney's White Collar Crime Unit and Chief of the California Attorney General's Major Fraud Unit and has more than fifteen years experience as a prosecutor in state and federal courts.

The Practice Team specializes in representing clients in a variety of areas often targeted by the government, and in private litigation, including allegations of health care fraud and abuse, financial institution fraud, securities fraud, environmental and antitrust violations and high tech issues such as computer crime, theft of trade secrets and misuse of intellectual property.

The White Collar Practice Team is able to draw on the firm's substantial expertise in the regulatory context of many of the cases to provide a comprehensive and thorough response.

In addition to vigorous defense of white collar prosecutions in state and federal court, the White Collar Practice Group provides comprehensive representation to those under investigation of potential criminal conduct, including conducting internal investigations of suspected fraud or wrongdoing, representing witnesses subpoenaed before the grand jury, providing counsel concerning compliance with search warrants and subpoenas and defending related civil and administrative proceedings.

The following are some of the subject areas in which the White Collar Practice Team has substantial experience:

HEALTH CARE FRAUD

Health care fraud and abuse has been targeted as the federal government's number one white collar priority. The government has funded large increases in the ranks of enforcement personnel and has emphasized the use of parallel proceedings – attacking targets at the same time with criminal, civil and administrative proceedings based upon the same allegations. Fueled by an escalating number of Qui Tam (whistle-blower) lawsuits, the government is broadly targeting segments of the health care field for scrutiny. As part of our firm's extensive health care practice, we have a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who was a nationally recognized expert in health care fraud matters.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Also the focus of federal and state law enforcement are environmental violations. In this complex field, the regulations are extensive and often ambiguous. The White Collar Practice Team couples its knowledge of state and federal enforcement procedures with the firm's broad knowledge of regulatory and transactional environmental matters to provide defense and counsel.

SECURITIES LAW

Violations of many of the regulations involving the purchase or sale of securities may also constitute criminal offenses. Given the increasing number of start-up companies in our region, this area of practice is likely to grow as is the need for experienced representation.

HIGH TECH CRIMES

On the horizon is aggressive prosecution of so-called high tech crimes, including computer crimes, theft of trade secrets and alleged misuse of intellectual property. Allegations of these matters often arise in connection with business disputes. The White Collar Practice Team is up- to-date on the new legislation and investigative techniques in this emerging area.

ANTITRUST

As many segments of the economy undergo rapid consolidation, state and federal agencies are taking a closer look at potential antitrust violations.

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Allegations of fraud in financial institutions continue to occupy a substantial portion of the caseload of federal prosecutors.

CRIMINAL TAX MATTERS

Allegations of criminal tax violations grow out of white collar investigations, even though they may not have been the investigation's initial focus. Experience in dealing with the criminal tax consequences of white collar matters is therefore essential.

PUBLIC CORRUPTION

Another high priority of federal investigators is public corruption. While similar to economic white collar investigations, these matters require knowledge of the political and legislative process which the White Collar Practice Team possesses.

 

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