Jeff Severson is a counsel in Crowell & Moring's San Francisco and New York offices, where he is a member of the White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement Group. Jeff's white collar practice focuses on representing individuals, multinational companies, and global financial institutions during internal and government investigations, including by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Federal Reserve Board, and State Attorneys General. In particular, he has experience defending allegations related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), securities fraud, health care fraud, and criminal antitrust violations.
The breadth of Jeff’s practice is illustrated in the following examples of his work representing:
- A managing director at a U.S. investment bank in a DOJ, SEC, and Federal Reserve Board investigation of possible FCPA violations in Asia. In defending enforcement action brought by the Federal Reserve, negotiated a settlement involving no monetary penalty or admission of liability.
- A multinational corporation in a grand jury investigation into hiring practices (no-poach/non-solicitation).
- An international pharmaceutical company in a NJ Attorney General inquiry into potential fraud in a tax incentives program.
- A pool of employees at a publicly traded pharmaceutical company as part of a DOJ health care fraud investigation.
- Multiple traders as part of SEC securities fraud investigations.
- Multiple broker-dealers in FINRA enforcement actions.
- Employees of international financial institutions as part of a SEC RMBS investigation.
- Senior traders as part of a CFTC ISDA fix investigation.
Jeff also maintains an active pro bono practice and focuses on representing clients in asylum and refugee resettlement proceedings, as well as indigent criminal defendants in the SDNY as part of the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel, in cases ranging from narcotics trafficking to criminal fraud.
In law school, Jeff was the senior articles editor for the Fordham International Law Journal, a Stein Scholar for the Public Interest, and a Crowley Scholar in International Human Rights. Prior to law school, Jeff worked for a prominent international human rights organization.
Affiliations
Admitted to practice: California, New York, Colorado, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Publications
Client Alerts & Newsletters
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"SEC Enforcement Warms Up: Commission Creates Climate and ESG Task Force,"
Administrative Law Alert
(March 5, 2021).
Contacts: Daniel L. Zelenko, Jeff Severson, Rebecca Lennon Baskin, Elizabeth B. Dawson, Monty Cooper
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"I Can’t Get No (Retroactive) Relief,"
White Collar Alert
(June 8, 2018).
Contacts: Rebecca Monck Ricigliano, Derek A. Hahn, Thomas A. Hanusik, Jeff Severson
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"Avoiding Compliance Red Cards After the FIFA Scandal: Anti-Corruption Considerations for Sponsors and Sports Marketing Companies,"
Advertising & State AG Alert
(June 8, 2015).
Contacts: David Ervin, Christopher A. Cole, Glen G. McGorty, Stephen M. Byers, Jeff Severson
Firm News & Announcements