Steve Cowen
is a partner with King & Spalding’s Special Matters and Government Investigations Practice, focusing on internal investigations, white collar criminal defense, civil fraud and whistleblower litigation, and corporate compliance programs.
His clients include major health care providers and suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, government contractors, manufacturers, and financial institutions. On behalf of numerous clients he has presented the results of independent internal investigations to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also has represented clients before Federal agencies conducting suspension/debarment and exclusion reviews, and defended clients before Congressional investigating committees.
Mr. Cowen was the court-appointed U.S. Attorney in Atlanta in 1986 and has extensive Government experience as a prosecutor and civil litigator. He was First Assistant and Chief of the Criminal Division in the Atlanta U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1983-1986 and Chief of the Civil Division there in 1982. Prior to that he was a trial lawyer in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Middle District of Florida and the District of Columbia.
Since leaving the Justice Department in 1986, Mr. Cowen’s practice has focused on defense of corporations and individuals in white collar criminal investigations and civil False Claims Act cases, and internal investigations on behalf of public and private companies and their governing boards. These matters include a wide array of allegations of business misconduct, including allegations of improper billing to Government health care programs; securities, procurement and tax fraud; unlawful sales and marketing of pharmaceuticals; and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Mr. Cowen is a member of the State Bars of Georgia, Florida and the District of Columbia. He is a frequent lecturer on corporate investigations and criminal defense, and for a number of years was the co-chair of the Georgia Bar’s annual White Collar Crime Conference and the Southeastern Health Care Fraud Institute.
A 1969 graduate with highest honors from Emory University, he received his J.D., cum laude, in 1972 from Harvard Law School. Mr. Cowen is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA as a leading white-collar criminal defense lawyer.
