Todd Harrison focuses his practice on white-collar and corporate defense, internal investigations, regulatory and compliance matters, and complex civil litigation in state and federal courts, including the defense of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases and the defense of companies and executives charged with violating various international sanctions regimes, including the US government sanctions on Iran. He has represented numerous companies facing government investigations, prosecutions and enforcement actions from both state and federal agencies, including the US Department of Justice (DOJ), US attorneys and state attorneys general offices, the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), various congressional committees of the US House and Senate, the Inspectors General of numerous federal agencies, the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB – formerly ATF), as well as the New York State Attorney General’s office, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Todd is a critical member of McDermott’s industry-leading Cryptocurrency practice. Todd has been instrumental in gaining favorable resolutions for numerous large companies in the cryptocurrency industry, in relation to fraud and regulatory investigations by the DOJ, the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Treasury Department.
Todd has been first-chair in more than forty trials in federal and state courts and has filed appellate briefs and conducted appellate arguments in more than a dozen cases in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Todd has been named a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation.
In August 2015, Todd was named the national “Litigator of the Week” by American Lawyer for the rare defense trial win he secured in a federal insider trading case. Todd's client was a hedge fund manager who faced 36 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy related to an alleged insider trading scheme. At trial in federal district court, Todd won a full acquittal of all 36 counts, vindicating his client and saving his client from a potential maximum of 25 years in jail. Todd has won on every single count of all 12 of the federal trials in which he has served as lead chair.
Previously, Todd served for more than five years as an Assistant US Attorney and Deputy Chief for the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and as an Assistant District Attorney for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. In 2003, the DOJ recognized Todd’s outstanding trial work in a racketeering case with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance by an Assistant US Attorney. He has handled complex and high-profile matters involving federal and state crimes, including insider trading, securities violations, sanctions violations, racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, export control violations, tax fraud, bankruptcy fraud, bribery, environmental crimes, terrorist financing, mail and wire fraud, health care fraud, obstruction of justice, false statements, murder and public corruption.
From January 2011 to October 2012, Todd served as chief counsel of the Energy & Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives, where he was responsible for oversight and investigations covering the energy, health care, telecommunications and environmental sectors. He oversaw complex investigations of private-sector companies and government agencies, including the US Department of Energy, the Federal Trade Commission, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Todd is also a member of our legal cannabis industry group. Our Cannabis Industry group is a multidisciplinary team of lawyers providing clients with regulatory, litigation, intellectual property, trade and tax services with respect to their investments and participation in the cannabis industry, all subject to the Firm’s obligations under federal and state laws and bar licensure rules.
