Investigations & Enforcement

Willkie’s Investigations & Enforcement practice represents public companies, financial institutions, boards, and individuals across the full spectrum of high-stakes internal and government-facing investigations and enforcement matters, including securities and commodities fraud, foreign and domestic bribery, economic sanctions, export controls, the False Claims Act, money laundering, government procurement fraud, healthcare fraud, and sensitive employment matters. Our approach emphasizes customized, strategic solutions that prioritize creativity, flexibility, and practicality in managing regulatory, financial, and reputational harm. We focus on containing and mitigating risk, and are regarded as a practical, commercially sophisticated destination for our clients’ most sensitive matters, often involving existential threats to their businesses and reputations.  
 
The team draws on litigators across both our U.S. and European offices to deliver an integrated, multijurisdictional platform, and has handled investigations involving more than one hundred countries. We regularly handle criminal, regulatory, and investigatory matters involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, FinCEN, the New York State Department of Financial Services, congressional committees, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, and various state attorneys general and district attorneys. Our clients benefit from an exceptional team of practitioners, many of whom either served in senior leadership at these and other agencies or have spent decades as leaders of the defense bar. The practice’s credibility with government agencies has meant many of its most significant matters concluded without charges or other formal action against clients, preserving confidentiality and limiting reputational exposure.
 
We also regularly advise companies on a wide variety of compliance program development and enhancement projects. This has included guiding companies through the initial implementation of a compliance program, advising companies on significant enhancements to an existing compliance program (during and after an enforcement action and otherwise), and fine-tuning existing, strong compliance programs.  Our approach is built upon risk assessments targeted to companies’ businesses and benchmarked to industry and government standards.  We excel at forming integrated teams that leverage experienced practitioners for a variety of subjects (e.g., competition, data privacy, anti-corruption, insider trading, sanctions, export controls, money laundering, employment matters).
 
The practice is consistently recognized by legal, business, and industry publications as a market leader. Chambers USA regularly ranks Willkie and individual practice members in Corporate Crime & Investigations, FCPA, Securities Regulation Enforcement, and White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, while Legal 500 US has ranked the firm as top-tier for Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense for both corporates and individuals. We are also ranked in Corporate Crime & Investigations by Chambers UK and in Regulatory Investigations and Corporate Crime (advice to corporates) in Legal 500 UK, and Global Investigations Review named the group among the world’s top 20 investigations practices in its most recent GIR 30 ranking.