Insights

Washington – January 2, 2020: Crowell & Moring elected eight lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2020. The firm also promoted seven attorneys to the position of senior counsel, and 26 associates to the position of counsel. The new partners have been promoted from within the ranks of the firm’s Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco offices. The new partners have been promoted from across offices and practice groups, including White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement, Health Care, International Trade, Intellectual Property, Privacy & Cybersecurity, Government Contracts, Litigation, and Antitrust.

Washington – November 5, 2019: Crowell & Moring’s White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement Group has been named to the Global Investigation Review’s 2019 “GIR 100” list, which honors the world’s leading firms for corporate investigations. This marks the fifth consecutive year that the firm has been recognized for this honor.

On October 24, 2023, Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Enforcement, provided a preview of the agency’s enforcement outlook against Chief Compliance Officers (“CCO”) in the upcoming year.  His remarks highlight the continued importance of compliance programs (and continued focus on the part of regulators on those programs), but also make clear that SEC enforcement actions targeting behavior on the part of CCOs will continue to be rare.

The Court of International Trade recently denied a motion to add a defendant’s criminal attorney to a protective order in a parallel civil regulatory case, teeing up key Fifth and Sixth Amendment concerns. 

The Manhattan District Attorney (“D. A.”), Alvin Bragg, recently announced in a press release dated February 16, 2023 (the “Press Release”) the creation of a new “Worker Protection Unit” (the “Unit”) to investigate and prosecute wage and hour violations and other violations of labor laws.  Prior to the creation of this Unit, the D.A.’s Office has prosecuted wage and hour violations primarily in the construction and real estate industries through the Construction Fraud Task Force.  According to the Press Release, the Unit will allow this Office to “significantly expand its focus to include other industries with high rates of worker exploitation and wage theft, such as home healthcare agencies, fast food and restaurants, and more.”  According to the Press Release, another focus of the Unit is to investigate and prosecute workplace safety laws.  The Unit will also partner with other units within the D.A.’s Office to encourage vulnerable and under-served populations to report wage and hour violations. 

The program covers the preservation of the attorney client privilege during internal investigations and will examine both the basics of privilege law and best practices for preserving it in the U.S. Attendees will find this program very beneficial for members of the compliance, internal audit, and legal functions.