Practices

In a strictly regulated environment, organizations face a growing risk of governmental investigation and parallel civil litigation. This dual threat presents complex challenges, requiring targets to address sensitive government and regulatory inquiries while simultaneously handling often overlapping private civil and business concerns. The risk of criminal punishment and civil fines increase the complexity of white collar matters and the demand for sophisticated legal counsel.

Recognized by Law360 as a leading law firm for White Collar Crime and Government Investigations, Akerman provides the sound counsel and strong courtroom skills needed by organizations and individuals facing investigation. With a foundation built on government experience, our team includes former senior enforcement lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and numerous former federal prosecutors. We understand how the government investigates, builds, and prosecutes a case and we know how to prevent or limit charges. When an indictment or regulatory complaint is unavoidable, our lawyers bring decades of experience in both federal and state courts to aggressively defend clients in criminal, civil, and other complex matters.

We represent corporations, boards of directors, employees, business owners, healthcare providers, government contractors, and individuals in all aspects of government investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, grand jury probes, internal investigations, and civil and criminal cases. Our extensive experience includes handling white collar and parallel proceedings before the Department of Justice (DOJ), the SEC, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DOD-DCIS), the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard. We frequently counsel clients long before government action, including regulatory counseling on industry risk areas.

Whether wrongdoing is suspected or not, all businesses in today’s legal environment need effective compliance programs that establish standards for which the organization and its employees must meet. Ensuring business integrity has never been more important, as multinational companies face new and complex challenges to operating lawfully and ethically in a global economy. We are experienced in designing and implementing effective internal compliance programs across a variety of sectors and jurisdictions, including training tools to help educate managers and employees. We also conduct due diligence reviews of international business partners and advise on ways to ensure maximum protection, including helping businesses assess merger and acquisition opportunities to protect against corruption and other risks to integrity.

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