Steve Fagell represents companies, boards of directors, and senior executives in government enforcement matters, internal investigations, and shareholder litigation.
As a partner in the White Collar Defense & Investigations practice and as co-chair of the Anti-Corruption practice, Mr. Fagell focuses on criminal and civil regulatory matters presenting complex legal, political, and reputational risks. He routinely represents clients before the US Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other law enforcement and regulatory agencies. Mr. Fagell has advised clients in the life sciences, financial services, defense, technology, energy, and manufacturing industries on a variety of white collar matters, including those relating to foreign bribery, corporate whistleblowers, insider trading, accounting fraud, banking, government contracting, export controls, and transnational tax issues. He has led highly sensitive internal investigations in China, Russia, and elsewhere for Fortune 500 clients, and defended an individual in what has been described as the largest personal income tax evasion case in US history. The latter case -- United States v. Anderson -- led to a key discovery ruling that established favorable law for defendants embroiled in document-intensive white collar prosecutions.
Mr. Fagell is former Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor in the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice. As a member of the Criminal Division’s senior leadership team from 2009-2010, Mr. Fagell was a key advisor to Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer on a broad range of litigation, policy, legislative, and management issues. He was integrally involved, for example, in the formulation of Division policy in connection with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, corporate and securities fraud, and other forms of financial fraud. Mr. Fagell coordinated the Division's work with the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, and he routinely represented the Division in its interactions with the SEC, the FBI, and other key regulators and law enforcement agencies.
Since returning to private practice, Mr. Fagell has been a frequent commentator on the SEC whistleblower program under the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as FCPA enforcement and financial fraud more generally. He has been interviewed by numerous media outlets, including CNBC, National Law Journal, American Lawyer, Corporate Board Member, Corporate Crime Reporter, and Compliance Week.
