Back to all practice areasIndividuals and companies targeted by the government can experience an array of potentially devastating consequences, including hefty financial penalties, irreparable reputational damage, loss of key professional and personal relationships, and even life-altering prison sentences. An increasingly strict regulatory landscape also heightens the risk of parallel civil proceedings, which can result in injunctions and additional financial penalties. With so much at stake, those dealing with prosecutions, investigations, and enforcement actions must rely on experienced counsel to defend them, help them navigate numerous complex processes, and preserve their reputation and, ultimately, their liberty.
Cohen Williams brings experience, compassion, strategic thinking, and sound judgment to our representation of our clients undergoing government scrutiny. We have successfully advocated on behalf of entrepreneurs, high-level executives, legal and medical professionals, organizations, and institutions nationwide in connection with a wide range of criminal charges, including financial, accounting, and computer crimes, investment fraud and insider trading, money laundering, Ponzi and pyramid schemes, racketeering and RICO violations, anti-corruption, kickbacks, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, false claims, witness tampering, import-export offenses, and virtually every kind of fraud.
When defending clients accused of misconduct, we have a singular goal: to ethically and efficiently obtain the best possible result. Our team devotes significant time and resources to pre-indictment advocacy, which regularly leads to declinations to prosecute and deferred prosecution agreements. We also frequently persuade prosecutors to file reduced charges as part of a favorable plea deal. And if a person's liberty or company's future must be defended in court, the CW team wages a strategic and vigorous battle to defend our client. Our lawyers have first-chaired dozens of jury trials all over the country, several of which have made headlines. We are confident, skilled, and forceful courtroom advocates who excel at crafting—and communicating—winning narratives that convince judges and juries.
As former federal defenders, prosecutors, and government lawyers, we possess firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of the criminal justice system, giving us a home court advantage that usually only government lawyers can claim. This allows us to stay ahead of the game by devising defense strategies that anticipate the opposition's moves before they happen. Many members of our team are former judicial law clerks, which optimizes both our understanding of the judicial process and the strength of our writing. Additionally, several former CW attorneys have themselves gone on to become judges, top United States Department of Justice officials, and the heads of federal and state public defenders' offices. Taken together, these relationships have enabled us to build up a deep reservoir of credibility with key decision-making parties, including judges, prosecutors, regulators, and law enforcement agencies.
Clients also hire CW to guide them through all manner of internal and government investigations and enforcement actions. When time is of the essence, we work quickly and nimbly to respond to subpoenas and other requests for information, then implement strategies to identify and correct misconduct while minimizing disruption to company operations. Our experience conducting and overseeing investigations has yielded positive outcomes for numerous clients, including a non-prosecution disposition for a client implicated in a large-scale corruption investigation that otherwise resulted in multiple indictments, a declination to prosecute in a cross-border bribery and public corruption investigation, and the complete dismissal of a 57-count indictment in a $150 million fraud prosecution due to prosecutors' errors during grand jury proceedings.
Regardless of the particular setback our clients are facing, CW leverages the full extent of our talent, experience, and resources to protect them every step of the way. From the earliest investigative phase through trial and appeal, we are prepared to fight as long as it takes to provide clients with favorable outcomes.