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1.21.25
Wilson Sonsini Honored Among Leading Law Firms in 2024 GIR 100
On November 15, 2024, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was named among the leading global law firms in Global Investigations Review’s 2024 GIR 100 guide, profiling the best firms for companies and executives to call on during high-stakes cross-border corporate investigations. GIR’s editorial team selected the top 100 firms handling complex and sophisticated investigations based on extensive market research, submissions, and references. The result is an in-depth survey of the best-performing investigations practices, specialist white-collar defense firms, and consulting businesses in the world.
News Articles
12.04.23
Wilson Sonsini Recognized in Global Investigations Review’s 2023 GIR 100
On November 30, 2023, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was named among the leading global law firms in the 2023 GIR 100 guide, an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices published by the Global Investigations Review. GIR’s editorial team selects the top 100 firms handling complex and sophisticated investigations based on extensive market research, submissions, and references.
Alerts
6.08.23
U.S. Supreme Court Closes Door on Objective Reasonableness Defense in Healthcare False Claims Act Cases
On June 1, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in a consolidated appeal of two healthcare qui tam cases that removes a very powerful defense from defendants’ arsenal in False Claims Act (FCA) cases. In the healthcare space, defendants have often asserted that, where an applicable legal or regulatory standard—e.g., a reimbursement regulation or Local Coverage Determination—is ambiguous and open to more than one objectively reasonable interpretation, the required FCA element of scienter (a knowing state of mind) cannot be found as long as defendants’ actions were consistent with one reasonable interpretation of the standard. The Supreme Court’s decision closes the door on this defense, eliminating one basis for a defendant to establish that a submission of a false claim to the government did not violate the FCA because it was not made “knowingly.” The decision nevertheless leaves the window open for defendants to assert a defense based on their sincerely held subjective belief at the time claims were made that their interpretation of the applicable standard was correct. This will have an immediate impact on healthcare FCA cases.
News Articles
11.16.21
Wilson Sonsini Named Among World’s Leading Firms for Investigations
On November 10, 2021, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was named to the 2021 edition of the GIR 100, an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices published by Global Investigations Review. Based on extensive research, the publication selected 100 law firms and 12 investigations consultancies from around the world that handle sophisticated cross-border government-led and internal investigations and related settlement negotiations or prosecutions of corporates and individuals.
The accompanying profile notes that the firm has “added to its investigations practice over the past year by recruiting big-name lawyers in New York and London,” and references several FCPA-related matters handled by the firm, including its representation of a group of shareholders in Africo Resources Limited who sued for restitution in an FCPA investigation against Och-Ziff, representation of several large cybersecurity companies in various FCPA investigations being conducted by the DOJ and SEC, representation of a computer scientist at a Chinese university who faced a charge of wire fraud conspiracy, and representation of witnesses in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption involving the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA. The profile also highlights the practices of partners Caz Hashemi, Tarek Helou, Leo Cunningham, and Moe Fodeman, and mentions the recent hires of Jessica Lonergan and Mike Casey, as well as the return of Beth George.
For more information on the 2021 GIR 100 recognition, please click here.
The accompanying profile notes that the firm has “added to its investigations practice over the past year by recruiting big-name lawyers in New York and London,” and references several FCPA-related matters handled by the firm, including its representation of a group of shareholders in Africo Resources Limited who sued for restitution in an FCPA investigation against Och-Ziff, representation of several large cybersecurity companies in various FCPA investigations being conducted by the DOJ and SEC, representation of a computer scientist at a Chinese university who faced a charge of wire fraud conspiracy, and representation of witnesses in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption involving the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA. The profile also highlights the practices of partners Caz Hashemi, Tarek Helou, Leo Cunningham, and Moe Fodeman, and mentions the recent hires of Jessica Lonergan and Mike Casey, as well as the return of Beth George.
For more information on the 2021 GIR 100 recognition, please click here.
Client Highlights
9.28.21
Firm Secures Win in Pro Bono Case Involving Former Colombian Paramilitary Leader
On September 27, 2021, a federal court in Florida ruled that former Colombian paramilitary leader Carlos Mario Jiménez Naranjo, aka “Macaco,” is liable for the extrajudicial killing of Eduardo Estrada, a beloved community leader in the Middle Magdalena region of Colombia. Over a thousand people attended Eduardo’s funeral after he was brutally gunned down in 2001 by paramilitaries commanded by Macaco.
Alerts
11.30.17
U.S. Department of Justice Adopts New FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy to Enhance FCPA Pilot Program
When a company learns that an employee or third-party business partner may have bribed a foreign official, it is never an easy question as to whether the company should turn itself in to the U.S. government. On November 29, 2017, the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Rod J. Rosenstein, announced a new FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy intended to make it easier for companies to answer that question with a "yes."1The Enforcement Policy, which governs DOJ criminal investigations, but not DOJ or U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil actions, has been incorporated into the U.S. Attorneys' Manual and posted on the DOJ's website.2
Alerts
12.07.16
Government Prevails in Significant Insider Trading Case
On December 6, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one of its most significant rulings on insider trading in recent years. In its ruling in Salman v. United States,1the Supreme Court unanimously upheld Bassam Yacoub Salman’s insider trading conviction, stating that federal insider trading statutes prohibit corporate insiders from making gifts of confidential information to family or friends, regardless of any tangible personal or financial benefit the corporate insider received in exchange.