Government Investigations, Enforcement & White Collar Defense

For many companies, government investigations and enforcement actions are an unfortunate reality in today’s world.  You need a partner who is intimately familiar with navigating these murky waters to help mitigate disruption and keep your business on track.  Goodwin has extensive experience defending government investigations and enforcement actions, and managing criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings.  We represent companies, executives, directors and audit committees, and other business leaders in investigations relating to financial and securities fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute, healthcare fraud, whistleblower claims, national security and sanctions requirements and alleged violations of financial lending regulations. We advocate for our clients on a daily basis before a wide range of federal and state agencies, including the SEC, DOJ, CFPB, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and state attorneys general. 

In the current environment, many private securities class action cases proceed side-by-side with investigations by the SEC, one or more state Attorneys General, and the DOJ. We regularly handle such parallel proceedings, working as a team with the lawyers in our Securities & Shareholder Litigation and Financial Services Litigation practices, and are experienced in advising clients in these complex and high-risk situations. We also routinely conduct internal investigations on behalf of boards of directors and committees of independent directors.

With an extraordinary collective reputation, and our deep bench of lawyers with experience at all levels of government, we are well prepared to handle the full range of challenges facing our clients, from government inquiries to full-scale enforcement actions, criminal trials, and related civil lawsuits. While we have resolved many of these matters quickly and quietly in advance of litigation and public scrutiny, we are genuine trial lawyers who do not hesitate to try a case when we – and our clients – believe it is the best approach.