Alexis Coll

Alexis Coll, a partner in Goodwin’s Securities & Shareholder Litigation and Government Investigations & Enforcement practices, and a leader of the firm’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act & Investigations for Technology companies sector, is a member of the firm’s Life Sciences Disputes group and has more than two decades of experience in government and internal investigations, shareholder litigation, and complex commercial disputes. Alexis regularly advises both public and private companies facing allegations of wrongdoing, conducts internal investigations for management and boards of directors (including audit and other board committees), and represents these clients in any associated proceedings before federal, state, and industry regulators.

Alexis is a seasoned trial lawyer In addition to shareholder and corporate governance litigation, she has handled consumer class actions, product liability class actions, complex commercial disputes, and employee termination suits in the state and federal courts of California, New York, Delaware, and numerous other jurisdictions across the country.

Prior to joining Goodwin, Alexis was a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Alexis’ representative experience includes:

Shareholder Litigation

• Represented Nu Skin Enterprises in securities fraud and derivative cases arising out of alleged misstatements about the Company’s operations in China*
• Represented Twitter in a multi-billion securities fraud class action related to alleged misstatements about its operations and performance metrics*
• Represented Alibaba in connection with shareholder litigation related to its historic $25 billion IPO*
• Represented Microsoft in connection with shareholder litigation arising from its acquisition of LinkedIn*
• Represented Guidewire in connection with a securities fraud suit alleging misstatements about industry trends and company opportunities
• Represented Facet Biotech in shareholder litigation arising from the hostile tender offer by Biogen Idec.; the company successfully defeated the $14.50 per share tender and the related litigation and ultimately sold itself for $27 per share to Abbott Laboratories.* Represented numerous private equity firms, including Silver Lake Partners, Hellman & Friedman, Elevation Partners and KKR, in lawsuits and regulatory inquiries arising from their M&A activity*
• Representing the CEO and founder of a start-up company in a securities fraud suit brought by investors
• Representing a private tech company and its CEO in a securities fraud suit brought by two of the founders

Internal and Government Investigations

• Served as lead counsel to Stanford University in an internal review of its athletics admissions processes after the announcement of the DOJ’s “Varsity Blues” investigation*
• Investigated the CEO of a tech startup when a whistleblower made allegations of financial misconduct by the CEO
• Advising a real estate technology company in a FINRA investigation
• Represented Nu Skin Enterprises in regulatory investigations and shareholder disputes arising from the announcement of regulatory action against the company by Chinese authorities*
• Represented a private equity fund in the real estate industry in an SEC investigation into alleged violations of federal securities laws
• Represented a leading computer hardware manufacturer in an FCPA investigation arising from its operations in Brazil*
• Represented a leading software manufacturer in an FCPA investigation arising out of its operations in Turkey and Germany*
• Represented a leading life sciences company in an SEC and IRS investigation alleging accounting fraud and underpaid taxes arising from its “Double Irish Tax Structure”*
• Represented the Audit Committee of a leading solar power company in an internal investigation into alleged consumer protection violations*
• Represented a manufacturer of construction equipment in allegations of public corruption, including FCPA violations, and commercial bribery in its Asia operations*
• Represented the GC of a fintech unicorn in an SEC investigation into alleged securities fraud*
• Represented a prominent VC fund when #metoo allegations were made by numerous women against its founder*
• Represented a prominent VC fund when #metoo allegations were made against a senior partner by a former employee*
• Served as lead counsel for a multinational real estate services firm in an investigation of violations of the FCPA in China. Represented the company in front of the SEC and DOJ, ultimately persuading both regulators to take no action against the company*
• Served as lead counsel into whistleblower allegations of fraud and wrongful manipulation of the company’s Cap Table at a pre-IPO tech unicorn*
• Represented the audit committees of Affymetrix, BEA Systems, Oracle and VeriFone in investigations related to alleged accounting or financial wrongdoing*
• Represented Westar Energy’s Litigation Evaluation Committee in its investigation of alleged illegal accounting and regulatory activities*
• Represented a Chinese media company in an SEC investigation and a related shareholder suit triggered by a damaging report by a short seller*
• Served as lead counsel for a Chinese internet company in responding to whistleblower allegations of accounting and tax irregularities*

Complex Civil Litigation

• Represented Velodyne, which faced allegations of wrongful termination of whistleblowers, in a successful jury trial in Oakland
• Representing the founders of tech company in a fraud lawsuit arising out of the sale of their company
• Represented the City of New York in a False Claims Act suit brought by the DOJ alleging improper Medicare expenses in excess of $3 billion*
• Representing the former CEO of a leading semiconductor company in an arbitration arising from breaches of his Separation Agreement by the Company
• Represented the sellers of a Chinese company in a fraud case brought by Caterpillar after it acquired their company*
• Represented a leading cosmetics manufacturer in all products liability and consumer protection claims brought against it, both individual and class action*
• Served as lead counsel for the sellers in a post-closing purchase price arbitration in connection with the $2.125 billion sale of a U.S.-based portfolio company to a European purchaser*
• Acted as strategic advisor and coordinating counsel for a U.S. technology company in a worldwide dispute with its largest distributor. Matter involved lawsuits in Singapore, California and Dubai as well as arbitrations before the ICC and AAA. The allegations of tax fraud, antitrust laws, financial fraud, and OFAC violations against the company prompted inquiries by US and Indian regulators*
• Served as lead counsel for a Chinese technology company in an investigation of alleged trade-secret theft from a U.S. company*
• Assisting various US entities in evaluating and implementing anti-corruption policies and compliance programs and consulting on specific issues as they arise in the course of their operations*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Alexis has served as Board President for both the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and the Giffords’ Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. She is a sought-after speaker on a wide-range of corporate governance topics; she was a speaker at Stanford Directors’ College in 2017 and 2019 and Stanford/NVCA Venture Capital Symposium in 2018.

Alexis was a 2021 recommended lawyer for Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense by The Legal 500. She was named a “Top Woman Litigator in California” by The Daily Journal and recognized by the publication as one of the “Top Women Lawyers” in the state. In addition, the Silicon Valley Business Journal has honored her as a “Woman of Influence,” while The Recorder has recognized her as one of its “Women Leaders in Technology Law.”

For her work representing pro bono clients in civil rights lawsuits, Alexis was honored by the ACLU of Southern California with the Reproductive Justice Award 2015 and the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley’s Pro Bono Partner Award in 2010. The State Bar of California awarded Ms. Coll and her team the President’s Pro Bono Service Award in 2016.

• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: February 2023,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal March 16, 2023
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: January 2023,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, February 13, 2023
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: December 2022,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, December 30, 2022
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: October 2022,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, November 30, 2022
• Co-Author, “California Supreme Court Review: September 2022,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, October 10, 2022
• Co-Author, “Treble damages among a handful of recent important decisions,” Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, September 8, 2022
• Co-Author, “FCPA Year in Review 2020,” Goodwin Client Alert, forthcoming February 2021
• Co-Author, “ISS 2021 Policy Updates on Federal Forum and Exclusive State Law Forum Provisions, Board Diversity and Other Matters,” Goodwin Client Alert, November 18, 2020
• Co-Author, “When do M+A Discussion Constitute MNPI? Recent SEC Guidance May Shed Some Light,” Goodwin Client Alert, November 16, 2020
• Co-Author, “Talking the Talk Versus Walking the Walk: Shareholder Suits Aim to Push Board Diversity and Punish Companies Supposedly Failing to Make Meaningful Change,” Goodwin Client Alert, November 10, 2020
• Co-Author, “COVID-19 Litigation and Government Investigations in the U.S.: What We Are Seeing Now, And What the Future Holds,” Goodwin Client Alert, April 24, 2020
• Co-Author, “U.S. Sanctions Compliance During COVID-19: Pandemic-Related Guidance From The Office of Foreign Assets Control,” Goodwin Client Alert, April 21, 2020
• Author, “Being a Board Member in the #Metoo Era,” C-Suite Magazine Issue 26, Winter 2018
• Co-Author, “Social Media in Federal Courts,” Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, 4th ed. 2016