Find Lawyers in Chicago, Illinois for Criminal Defense: White-Collar
Criminal Defense: White-Collar - Chicago, Illinois
About this Practice Area
Sergio Acosta is Co-Chair of Akerman’s White Collar Crime and Government Investigations Practice. A former federal prosecutor and Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers with over 70 jury trials to his credit, he has extensive experience defending companies and individuals in criminal and regulatory proceedings, conducting internal investigations, and counseling clients on compliance programs and related issues. Sergio represents companies and individuals in regulatory, civil, a...
A highly skilled civil, criminal, and appellate litigator, Joel Bertocchi handles appeals in state and federal courts and represents clients in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations and proceedings, providing counsel on compliance policies and related issues. He has argued cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal Circuits and state appellate courts, and served as Illinois’ Solicitor General, the chief appellate lawyer for the State. A former federal prosecut...
Jack Carriglio represents clients in commercial disputes, including the prosecution and defense of cases relating to contracts, business torts, bankruptcy, securities, product defects, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, partnership disputes, malpractice and professional disciplinary matters, and real estate litigation. In addition, Jack has a substantial practice in representing corporations and individuals at the federal grand jury, trial, and appellate courts in various criminal matters in...
Joe Duffy is an accomplished and resourceful trial lawyer who focuses his national practice on white collar criminal defense and complex business litigation. He handles all aspects of federal and state criminal prosecutions through the investigative, prosecutive and appellate stages. He has extensive experience representing individuals and corporations in internal and government investigations as well as civil and criminal jury trials and appeals. Joe has successfully represented clients in c...
John F. Gibbons has more than 25 years of experience handling a broad range of civil and criminal matters for national corporations, financial institutions, brokerage houses, pension funds, real estate entities, and individuals, including fraud, breach of contract, trade secret, class action, RICO, civil rights, commercial and criminal securities cases, grand jury investigations, white collar defense, FCPA issues, corporate internal investigations and appeals. He has advised many corporate cl...
As a former state court judge, experienced prosecutor, and defense lawyer, RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes is renowned for her comprehensive trial experience and wisdom as a trusted advisor for clients. She focuses on high-stakes commercial disputes and litigation; class actions; risk, reputation, and crisis management; and internal investigations and white collar criminal defense. She is one of a handful of Illinois lawyers who have handled cases in state, city, and federal court...
In his civil litigation and white collar defense practices, Ed litigates and tries cases, and argues appeals in both federal and state courts. He also counsels and conducts investigations for clients facing potential civil and criminal litigation, and represents clients in grand jury proceedings. Ed also is General Counsel of the Firm. Civil Litigation Ed represents clients in commercial disputes in several industries, including the financial services, real estate, automotive, luxury goods, a...
Jonathan Marks helps clients — often large insurers — develop investigation, claims handling and litigation strategies to detect, prevent and deter fraud. As an Assistant US Attorney, Jonathan tried numerous federal jury trials and argued appeals before the US Court of Appeals. As a lawyer in private practice, Jonathan has handled hundreds of insurance fraud investigations and dozens of fraud litigation matters. At every stage of counseling, investigation, litigation and in court,...
Scott Mendeloff combines an 11-year tenure as a former federal prosecutor with more than 19 years of experience in private practice. He focuses his practice on commercial trials and white collar criminal litigation. Scott has been consistently recognized by Chambers USA in the area of commercial litigation and by Leading Lawyers in the areas of commercial and white collar litigation. Scott has tried to conclusion more than 50 cases in a wide array of areas in both the civil and criminal arena...
Mr. Polales has spent his career investigating, coordinating and trying criminal cases in the State of Illinois. He now focuses his work in the area of white-collar criminal defense, corporate compliance and internal investigations. Representative Experience Representing a number of subjects of interest in federal grand jury investigations involving allegations of theft of trade secrets, unlawful access to stored electronic communications, public corruption, mail, wire and securities fraud an...
J. William Roberts is Senior Partner and serves as Special Counsel to management of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. He served as the firm's first national Managing Partner, from 1997 to 2016. Mr. Roberts maintains an active legal practice in the firm's Chicago and Springfield offices, concentrated in complex civil and criminal litigation, government relations and gaming law. Mr. Roberts’ career has been dedicated to public service through several prominent positions in various levels of g...
Ronald Safer manages complex, high-stakes cases with a focus in white collar crime and civil litigation. He has successfully represented companies and individuals in matters such as accounting fraud, tax fraud, anti-kickback violations, FCPA, environmental violations and securities fraud. He represents clients before the U.S. Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission and numerous state agencies Ron’s track record demonstrates his ability to comm...
Michael D. Sher represents clients in complex civil litigation and in business-related criminal investigations, trials and appeals in federal and state judicial and administrative proceedings. Chambers USA (2010) reports that Michael “has a stellar reputation among peers for his ‘first rate’ performance in court.” Michael has also been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (within Commercial Litigation and Litigation-Securities). Michael is...
Gil Soffer, managing partner of Katten's Chicago office, has made his mark on both sides of white-collar actions. As a former federal prosecutor and senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official, he thoroughly understands the government's enforcement strategies and tactics. As an experienced white-collar defense lawyer and national co-chair of the firm's litigation practice, he devotes his practice to keeping clients out of trouble and navigating them safely through government investigations an...
David Stahl, one of the founding partners of Eimer Stahl LLP, has practiced complex commercial litigation for more than forty years. He has had numerous bench and jury trials in state and federal court, as well as administrative proceedings, involving a wide variety of matters including attorney malpractice cases, construction disputes, antitrust claims, securities law violations, breach of contract cases, refusal to defend cases, and toxic torts. He has focused intensively in litigation in t...
Partner at McDermott Will & Emery -- 1991 - present Co-chairman at McDermott Will & Emery -- 2010-present Previously, head of Trial Department and head of White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group. Served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1986-1991 focusing on the prosecution of white-collar crime.
ack Theis represents clients in times of crisis. As a former Associate White House Counsel, Department of Justice trial lawyer, and civil litigator, he brings a wealth of public and private sector experience to companies and industry leaders facing complex challenges. Known for keeping an even keel in high-stress situations, Jack brings a practical approach to complicated problems. He counsels clients facing individual and class action litigation, government investigations, and multidimension...
Alex Vesselinovitch is a Partner in the Litigation Practice Group. Alex focuses his practice on civil and criminal litigation involving breach of contract, anti-fraud, intellectual property, and antitrust matters. He also handles domestic and international commercial arbitrations involving various contractual and licensing disputes. Alex handles a wide variety of complex cases involving both the presentation and defense of fraud, intellectual property, and antitrust claims. He also is experie...
Drawing on nearly 40 years of combined experience as a federal prosecutor and defense attorney, Sheldon Zenner expertly navigates his clients through high-stakes matters, including government and internal investigations, regulatory proceedings, all phases of criminal matters and related civil litigation. Sheldon's diverse client base is made up of corporations, high-ranking executives and company owners across a wide range of industries, including financial services, health care and entertain...
John Adams is a stakeholder at Eimer Stahl in the firm’s Chicago and Madison offices. He focuses his practice on appellate and complex litigation in a variety of areas, including antitrust, constitutional law, and complex civil and commercial litigation. He also has substantial experience with government investigations. During his time in practice, he has argued critical motions and briefs at the trial and appellate courts; participated in and prepared witnesses for depositions; handled...
A professional problem solver with strong investigative, analytic, and communication skills, Erin Gasparka helps clients distill any dilemma down to its essence, whether it be developing nuanced defenses to undermine white collar allegations or analyzing a company’s business and cultural profile to create a robust compliance program.
Criminal Defense: White-Collar Definition
“White-collar defense” captures a broad set of substantive areas of the law, all of them arising from the myriad ways that local, state, federal, and foreign governments regulate businesses and entrepreneurs — what they say to investors and the general public about their own successes and failures (securities law); how they compete with one another (antitrust law); how they win business, deliver services, and seek payment when governments are themselves the customers (False Claims Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act); how businesses treat the environment; and whether they comply with general laws against theft, fraud, bribery, tax evasion and corruption. Public officials must navigate similar rules and thus present similar types of issues included under the broad category of white-collar defense.
The practice demands particularly versatile lawyers who deliver a range of services. White-collar lawyers try cases in court. They also specialize in risk management and compliance, training businesses and their individual employees about ways to minimize potential criminal and civil liability. Corporations engage white-collar lawyers to conduct internal investigations of their own business practices to assess and prepare for the risk of criminal and civil liability. Individuals and corporations demand white-collar representation as much when they are merely witnesses to alleged wrongdoing as when they are accused of it. White-collar litigation also involves assessing victims’ damages and their potential remedies as well as representing those accused of wrongdoing in administrative and court proceedings.
White-collar practices also must anticipate and prepare for the potential trajectory of a white-collar case. For example, an internal investigation identifying potential criminal or civil issues can lead to government enforcement actions and follow-up civil claims by alleged victims or competitors — all arising from the same conduct. The risk of criminal punishment and civil fines and liability potentially running into the billions of dollars, increase the complexity of white-collar matters and the demand for sophisticated counsel.
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
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