Best Lawyers in New York, United States for Criminal Defense: White-Collar
Sean Hecker is a partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink, where his practice focuses on white-collar criminal defense, government and internal investigations, complex civil litigation, and regulatory compliance. He is an experienced trial lawyer, nationally recognized as a go-to litigator for corruption and other white-collar criminal defense matters by Chambers , Benchmark Litigation , Best Lawyers in America , and Lawdragon 500 , among others. He was named among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by Ben...
Guy is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He represents clients in civil and criminal litigation and investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, antitrust proceedings and independent investigations. He has also served as an arbitrator and as counsel in commercial arbitrations, bankruptcy court matters, including trustee and examiner investigations and adversary actions, and in mediations. Guy was named as a Best Lawyers 2026 ‘Lawyer of the Year’ for Criminal De...
Steven F. Molo is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Commercial Litigation, Criminal Defense: White-Collar and Litigation - Securities. Steven F., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2001. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Steven F. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Barry N. Covert focuses his practice primarily in the following areas: New York State and federal criminal trials and appeals Constitutional law, including First Amendment, Second Amendment, and civil rights actions Qui Tam Act, also known as the False Claims Act Defending against allegations of scientific misconduct, scientific fraud, research misconduct, research fraud, plagiarism, and fabrication of evidence Defense of professional licensing, including for attorneys, doctors, and nurses Ti...
Benjamin Gruenstein serves as a trusted advisor to companies, boards of directors and senior executives navigating their most consequential legal challenges in the areas of government and internal investigations, regulatory enforcement, white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation. Before launching Gruenstein Law, Ben spent 14 years as a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he was a founding member of the firm’s Investigations and Regulatory Enforcement Practice. ...
Tina Sciocchetti is a partner in our Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice group, drawing on her extensive experience as a former federal prosecutor. She is co-chair of Nixon Peabody’s Private and Independent Schools specialty team and serves on the Higher Education and Data Privacy teams. My focus I represent clients in state and federal investigations, providing counsel across a broad spectrum including healthcare, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) complian...
David Patton is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: White-Collar. David, who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which David is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Jaimie L. Nawaday is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Jaimie L., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2020. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Jaimie L. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Dietrich L. Snell is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Dietrich L., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2013. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Dietrich L. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Chris Gunther has more than 15 years of experience defending individuals and corporations in federal and state criminal investigations and inquiries by government regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, Mr. Gunther served as an assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where he tried many cases and argued frequently before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His trial experience as a prosecutor and defense a...
Michele Roberts is a renowned trial lawyer and a member of the firm’s Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on complex civil and white collar criminal litigation before state and federal courts and in administrative proceedings. Ms. Roberts has tried more than 100 cases to jury verdicts, representing clients in a wide variety of areas, including products liability, white collar, racketeering, securities regulation violations, Title VII issues and premises liability. She has been called...
Christopher P. Conniff is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: White-Collar and Litigation - Regulatory Enforcement (SEC, Telecom, Energy). Christopher P., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2022. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Christopher P. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
David Massey is a former prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York who leads global companies, board committees, and senior executives through high-profile cross-border investigations, criminal prosecutions, and civil litigation. David has obtained favorable results for clients in a broad range of cases. He negotiated the first corporate deferred prosecution agreement in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) FIFA investigation, and he has repr...
Sharon L. McCarthy, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, has extensive experience representing individuals and corporations in white-collar criminal matters as well as civil and criminal tax controversies. Her cases have included government investigations of: securities fraud, including insider trading and market manipulation; bank fraud; tax fraud; mail and wire fraud, including theft of honest services; accounting fraud; failure to file tax returns; antitrust violations; const...
Boyd Johnson serves as the Co-Chair of the White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice and the Partner-in-Charge of the firm’s New York Office. Leveraging 30 years of public and private sector experience, Mr. Johnson represents companies and senior executives in criminal investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, and civil litigations. Over the past three decades, Mr. Johnson has served in a variety of senior roles, including Co-Chair of WilmerHale’s White Collar Defense...
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.