McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Effective anticorruption compliance is critical to any company operating internationally. We regularly conduct internal investigations of reported concerns under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other anti-bribery laws to determine the veracity of allegations and to advise companies on responding effectively, including taking steps to reduce opportunities for future misconduct. We also defend companies and individuals in government enforcement and regulatory investigations by authorities in the United States and other countries.

We leverage our investigations and defense experience to assist clients in developing effective compliance programs and with appropriate compliance policies, procedures and training designed to enhance rather than disrupt business operations. We conduct global compliance risk assessments to help our clients make informed decisions on how to allocate compliance resources. We assist clients in conducting anticorruption due diligence and drafting strong contracts in cross-border deals and engagements of third-party representatives in order to mitigate the significant anticorruption risks those relationships present.

Our team includes former senior lawyers from the US Department of Justice (DOJ), US attorneys' offices and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and individuals with deep in-house compliance, computer forensics and accounting experience, who collaborate to provide clients with the multidisciplinary experience and counsel that anticorruption matters often require.

Regulators are placing greater scrutiny on transactions, pricing practices, and competitor conduct. Our antitrust lawyers partner with you to pursue strategic growth opportunities while navigating regulatory pressure across global markets – helping you reduce the risk of business disruption, financial exposure, and reputational damage.

Our antitrust lawyers provide coordinated guidance across US and international competition laws. From strategic transactions and government investigations to commercial counseling and competition disputes, we work with you to manage antitrust risk wherever it arises.

We represent companies and individuals in antitrust investigations, enforcement actions, and competition disputes across US and international markets. Our lawyers advise you on matters involving the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), European Commission, EU Member State authorities, and other global competition agencies. We guide you through cartel investigations, class actions, civil antitrust litigation, and other regulatory proceedings tied to antitrust and competition law.

We also help you navigate merger clearance, foreign investment reviews, competition approvals, and regulatory filing strategies. We regularly serve as specialized antitrust counsel focused on merger clearance and competition approvals in complex domestic and cross-border transactions.

Competition laws influence your day-to-day business operations. To help you manage risk under evolving antitrust requirements, our lawyers advise you on pricing strategies, distribution structures, competitor collaborations, trade association conduct, exclusive arrangements, and compliance programs. By understanding how regulators evaluate competitive conduct, we guide you to make informed business decisions that reduce antitrust exposure.

Antitrust and competition issues frequently involve overlapping considerations. Our antitrust lawyers partner with you to manage competition risk across jurisdictions. Whether you are pursuing a transaction, structuring a commercial arrangement, or responding to a government investigation, we help you navigate regulatory scrutiny strategically while protecting your ability to compete and grow across global markets.

Healthcare organizations face increasing government scrutiny and private whistleblower activity, and frequent regulatory and policy changes—all of which pose greater financial and reputational costs than ever before. We offer unmatched guidance in navigating this complex legal environment to help our clients minimize risk while reaching their goals.

If an investigation or litigation is unavoidable, our healthcare defense team efficiently and effectively achieves the best possible result for our clients, so they can focus on what they do best—innovating and revolutionizing the healthcare industry.

We anticipate problems and proactively develop solutions.

We understand you have a business to run, and we can help by minimizing the distraction that comes with subpoenas, investigations and litigation. Our healthcare litigation, regulatory, compliance and transactional practitioners work together to address every aspect of a legal problem in a layered approach that includes leveraging our industry-leading experience, following trends and staying on top of ever-changing laws, rules and guidance.

Our unrivaled understanding of the business of operating hospitals, health systems, healthcare providers, life sciences and technology companies—down to the complicated reimbursement structure and rules, at both the federal and state level—is critical in a world where billing government payors is a source of constant scrutiny. And our skilled team works tirelessly to help clients on many fronts, including identifying and avoiding unnecessary risks, responding quickly and effectively in a crisis, efficiently defending any investigation or qui tam complaint, and negotiating the best possible outcomes with the government and private parties. We routinely handle matters under the False Claims Act, the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, HIPAA, corporate governance, cybersecurity, pharmaceutical marketing and pricing, and disputes among payers and providers.

Made up of well-respected and nationally renowned lawyers across the United States and around the world, our team includes:

• Several former Assistant United States Attorneys and healthcare fraud lawyers from the US Department of Justice
• Former senior advisors, lawyers and professionals from the HHS Office of Inspector General and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• A best-in-class regulatory and compliance team that wrote a leading treatise on the Stark Law and includes nationally recognized authorities on the Anti-Kickback Statute and its safe harbor regulations
• Transactional lawyers experienced in negotiating healthcare transactions involving complex regulatory and compliance issues

Our team’s robust experience helps us deliver optimal results in healthcare litigation and investigations, and provide the necessary compliance guidance to help clients operate smoothly and avoid running into new issues.

While we are—and will continue to be—on the front lines of some of the largest and most important cases shaping the healthcare industry, our goal is to prevent problems from ever reaching the courtroom. Our clients come to us because they know they will get the best possible advice to minimize the likelihood of investigation or litigation. The comprehensive breadth and depth of our knowledge and experience enables us to spot issues before they become problems. Working as partners with our industry-leading healthcare regulatory and transactional lawyers, we help clients avoid investigations, litigations and crises. Yet, if litigation is unavoidable, our team of seasoned, first-chair trial lawyers is experienced in aggressively and effectively defending healthcare litigation.

As the only law firm to receive national Tier 1 rankings in healthcare from all of the industry’s top legal directories—Chambers USA, The Legal 500 USA, and U.S. News – Best Lawyers—we’ve earned our reputation by leading the legal strategies on some of the most important cases in the healthcare industry and stand ready to help you take on yours.

Global trade rules shape how your business moves goods, capital, and technology – but they are increasingly fragmented, politicized, and enforced in real time. Our international trade lawyers help you navigate international trade law across jurisdictions, aligning compliance with your commercial goals so you can operate, transact, and grow with fewer disruptions.

With teams across key global trade centers and experience spanning policy, enforcement, and transactions, we help you anticipate risk, structure cross-border activity, and respond quickly as rules change. Our integrated approach connects international trade law with national security, regulatory, and transactional considerations – so your business can operate effectively as conditions evolve.

As sanctions, export controls, customs rules, technology restrictions, and national security regulations increasingly intersect, decisions in one area can create unintended exposure across your business. We guide you through overlapping US, EU, and UK trade and national security regulations, including:

• Sanctions and export controls
• CFIUS, foreign subsidies, and other national security investment reviews
• Customs, tariffs, and import compliance
• Supply chain controls, product compliance, forced labor requirements, and supply chain due diligence obligations
• Data transfer, cybersecurity, and technology restrictions
• Outbound investment and economic security restrictions

Trade risk cuts across sourcing, contracting, financing, and distribution. We help you assess exposure across counterparties, jurisdictions, and supply chains; design compliance programs that scale with your operations; and structure transactions with trade controls in mind. Our experience also extends to diligence tied to sanctions, export controls, customs, contractual protections, third-party risk management, and internal investigations and regulatory engagement.

Trade rules are often shaped through enforcement and policy decisions as much as through written law. We represent clients in trade remedies proceedings – WTO and trade agreement disputes, administrative proceedings before customs and regulatory agencies, and cross-border investigations, enforcement actions, litigation, and arbitration.

We also engage directly with policymakers and regulators to address tariffs, market access barriers, and trade policy developments. Drawing on extensive experience on Capitol Hill and before trade and regulatory authorities, we help advance your strategic objectives through targeted advocacy.

Global trade volatility can affect how you source, sell, invest, and grow. Our international trade lawyers manage that complexity with an integrated strategy – helping you navigate international trade regulation, pursue cross-border opportunities, and move your business forward in a changing global trade environment.

Disputes can disrupt your operations, drain resources, and create uncertainty that affects business performance. Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers help you navigate high-stakes disputes while reducing uncertainty, managing risk, and protecting your long-term business interests.

Our litigation and dispute resolution practice is comprised of experienced litigators and trial lawyers throughout the US and Europe. Working across practices, we provide integrated counsel tailored to complex disputes. By combining industry- and practice-specific knowledge with trial and appellate experience, we assess how disputes are likely to evolve and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Our lawyers guide you through every stage of a dispute – from early case assessment through litigation, trial, and appeal. With a dedicated appellate practice that has handled hundreds of appeals, including matters before the US Supreme Court, we approach cases with trial and appellate strategies aligned from the outset.

When litigation is not the most effective path forward, we partner with you to resolve disputes through arbitration and mediation. Our lawyers represent you in proceedings before the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and other arbitral bodies – helping you control risk, maintain confidentiality, and preserve business relationships.

In addition to commercial disputes, we advise you on sensitive investigations and government enforcement actions. We conduct internal investigations involving allegations of misconduct, compliance issues, and potential regulatory violations. We also represent you in proceedings involving the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), self-regulatory organizations, stock exchanges, and other state and federal agencies.

Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers understand how disputes can affect your business and reputation. By combining litigation experience with practical business insight, we help you assess risk, reduce uncertainty, and determine the most effective path forward – whether through litigation or strategic resolution outside the courtroom.

The collection, use and disclosure of personal data trigger a range of privacy and cybersecurity laws and regulations, all of which are enforced by aggressive plaintiffs’ lawyers and government agencies. The retention of sensitive proprietary information pertaining to business partners also implicates a range of legal obligations, and exposure of such information often results in litigation and strained business relationships.

Our lawyers have handled hundreds of data breaches and draw on this experience to routinely represent clients in litigation and governmental investigations arising out of large, complex data breaches, including major incidents involving millions of personal, financial or patient records. We have also represented clients in complex class actions in courts around the country and in governmental investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and by state attorneys general. We have also advised clients in disputes with vendors and business partners over losses arising out of cyber incidents.

We are the health-industry market leader with respect to handling responses to OCR investigations. Our lawyers have unparalleled experience negotiating resolution agreements with OCR on behalf of health clients, including major academic medical centers, health plans and provider networks.

We have litigated some of the most important privacy cases in recent years and have obtained landmark rulings, including the US Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual. We have defended clients in scores of federal and state cases across the country, including dozens of class actions involving claims under federal and state privacy laws, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and unfair and deceptive practices statutes, as well as numerous common-law privacy and security claims. We have also represented companies in data collection matters, disputes and class actions involving personal information acquired at point of sale using credit and debit cards in a number of states, including Song Beverly and other state statutes.

Securities litigation remains an ongoing threat to businesses and financial institutions. Our SEC Enforcement group is composed of lawyers - including former senior members of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Enforcement - who possess substantial experience covering the full spectrum of securities enforcement activity. Our lawyers are knowledgeable about the SEC as an agency, including its rules, practices and customs, and maintain excellent relations with staff of the Enforcement Division and Office of General Counsel.

Clients rely on us to provide legal defense against securities litigation. We have secured favorable results stemming from investigations and enforcement proceedings, on behalf of public companies, their audit committees, officers, directors and senior management, as well as financial services firms, broker deals, investment advisors, hedge funds and accounting firms.

Our capabilities cover all aspects of SEC and other regulatory investigations, as well as parallel proceedings, private class actions and derivative litigation. We have been successful in deterring the SEC at various stages of enforcement investigations and frequently persuade the SEC either not to take any action against our clients or to reduce the nature and scope of the charges, including the elimination of fraud-based charges.

We have demonstrated success - civil and criminal - bringing trials to verdict in federal district courts and handling administrative proceedings at the federal and state level, and we possess substantial appellate experience in the appeal of administrative decisions to the SEC and to the US circuit courts.

As a testament to the mutual respect between our practice and the commission, we have successfully petitioned the SEC to appear as amicus curiae in favor of a client's position in private securities litigation. The SEC also has called upon members of our group to act as receivers in the SEC civil enforcement proceedings. This cumulative experience differentiates us from the competition, ultimately providing clients with the best legal representation to achieve a favorable outcome.

We represent financial institutions, payments companies, fintechs, and other consumer-facing businesses in high-stakes investigations and enforcement matters involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state attorneys general. Our team advises clients across the full lifecycle of regulatory risk – from supervisory examinations and investigations through enforcement actions and litigation – helping them respond strategically and mitigate exposure.

Drawing on senior-level experience inside the CFPB and FTC, we provide clients with a practical understanding of how regulators think, prioritize and pursue enforcement. We regularly counsel on matters involving unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP), electronic payments and transfers (Regulation E), lending and disclosure requirements (Regulation Z), and other core consumer protection frameworks.

Our approach integrates defense with forward-looking risk management. We help clients navigate regulator inquiries, prepare for and manage examinations, and engage effectively with enforcement staff. We also advise on identifying and addressing compliance gaps, including in the context of transactions, where consumer protection risks can impact valuation, deal certainty and post-close exposure.

With experience spanning rulemaking, supervision, enforcement and litigation at the federal level, we bring a comprehensive, insider-informed perspective to resolving complex consumer financial services issues in an increasingly active and fragmented regulatory environment.

We represent and defend companies and individuals facing government investigations and prosecutions involving allegations of white-collar crime. Our deep bench includes former federal prosecutors from the DOJ with experience leading hundreds of investigations and high-profile criminal trial proceedings across the full range of white-collar criminal offenses in every major district in the US and across all industries. We have a robust global team in the UK and Europe that comprises former regulators, in-house counsel, and private practice litigators with decades of experience representing companies and individuals in criminal and regulatory proceedings and associated litigation.

Our white-collar lawyers excel in crisis management and leverage insider knowledge of how criminal cases are investigated and prosecuted globally to help clients minimize their exposure. Clients turn to us for defense against allegations of white-collar crime, including:

• Bank fraud and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
• Bankruptcy fraud
• Corporate Fraud
• Counterintelligence and national security matters
• Crypto-enabled offenses
• Cybercrimes
• FCPA and Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA)
• Healthcare fraud
• Insider trading
• Mail and wire fraud
• Money laundering
• Public corruption
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) offenses
• Securities fraud
• Tax fraud

Our team has decades of experience navigating the shifting global anti-corruption landscape and advising on compliance with the FCPA, UK Bribery Act, and other anti-corruption laws. Offering a strategic and practical approach paired with a deep understanding of compliance risk, we guide our clients through FCPA industry sweeps, complex cross-border investigations, DOJ and SEC enforcement actions, and monitorships. Global companies and individuals turn to us to build effective anti-corruption compliance programs, weather uncertainty, and respond effectively to government scrutiny.

Our team handles a broad range of anti-corruption matters, including:

• High-stakes internal and government-facing investigations
• Enforcement matters before DOJ, SEC, and other government authorities
• Compliance program development and implementation
• FCPA monitorships, as both the government-appointed monitor and company counsel
• Compliance risk assessments
• Anti-corruption due diligence for M&A transactions

Multinational companies and their executives face an increasingly complex – and increasingly global – enforcement environment. Our global compliance team helps clients anticipate and manage global risk with confidence and, where necessary, respond to global investigations quickly and efficiently.

Our multinational team draws on its deep experience to help clients develop and enhance compliance programs; conduct multidisciplinary, cross-border investigations; and defend them in regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, and associated related civil litigation. We have particular experience helping clients navigate issues in the US, UK, and EU across the full spectrum of regulatory compliance, including:

• Cross-border government investigations and enforcement actions
• Global anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance
• Anti-bribery and corruption, including potential violations of the FCPA, UK Bribery Act, and other international laws
• Global whistleblower protections and initiatives
• Corporate governance and reputation management

Our white-collar defense team works closely with lawyers in our market-leading health and life sciences practice to defend the world’s largest healthcare and life sciences companies in government investigations, fraud and abuse lawsuits, and other high-profile civil and criminal cases that shape the industry.

Our lawyers have decades of experience defending clients against civil and criminal government enforcement and litigation, including False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and litigation, whether intervened by the government or not. We routinely handle matters under the FCA, the Stark Law, and the Anti-Kickback Statute. We also advise on corporate governance, cybersecurity, pharmaceutical marketing and pricing, and payer-provider disputes. Our team includes:

• Numerous former US attorneys and healthcare fraud lawyers from the DOJ
• Former senior officials from the HHS Office of Inspector General and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Regulatory and compliance lawyers who are nationally recognized authorities on the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute and its safe harbor regulations
• Seasoned healthcare defense lawyers with a proven track record representing health and life sciences clients in high-stakes disputes
• Lawyers skilled at advising on regulatory and compliance issues and FCA risk in transactional settings