Michael J. Edney, a partner in Norton Rose Fulbright's Washington office, guides his clients through regulatory investigations, criminal prosecution, and civil litigation.
Mr. Edney advises his clients through the perils of government regulation and vigorously defends his clients facing government inquiries and prosecutorial threats. Mr. Edney has represented clients before the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury and its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the National Security Agency (NSA), congressional committees, and other government entities. In 2014, for example, Mr. Edney successfully negotiated a resolution of what was then the largest non-bank trade sanctions investigation in United States history, along with a resolution of charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
When companies encounter allegations of wrongdoing, Mr. Edney has conducted many internal investigations on their behalf, while carefully avoiding disruption of the client's important business operations. He has worked extensively with the Audit Committees and senior management of public companies to determine how to comprehensively resolve suggestions of misconduct.
Mr. Edney's government regulation practice also precedes agency enforcement actions. He has convinced courts across the country to strike down government regulatory schemes. His civil litigation practice spans beyond anti-regulatory suits, reaching from the First Amendment to constitutional law to complex commercial disputes. He has led a worldwide litigation effort to recover assets stolen by associates of an African country's deposed dictator. He has served as lead counsel for three former Attorneys General of the United States before the Supreme Court. Mr. Edney has persuaded the state's highest court unanimously to overturn a lower court ruling blocking a $1.5 billion redevelopment project in Baltimore.
Mr. Edney's practice draws on previous government service. From 2007 to 2009, he served as a legal advisor to the National Security Council at the White House. There, he provided legal advice to White House policymakers regarding national security issues and congressional oversight and assisted in coordinating the legal efforts of the national security departments and agencies of the Executive Branch.
From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Edney served in the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, a small team of elite lawyers who resolve constitutional and other legal questions of particular importance for the Executive Branch. Mr. Edney represented the United States before federal courts and international tribunals. He received the United States State Department's Superior Honor Award for his work on these matters.
