Practice Areas & Industries: Akerman Senterfitt

Practice/Industry Group Overview

The government has almost unlimited resources with which to handle white-collar crime subjects. Securing counsel with substantial experience and a solid record of successful defenses is critical.

As experts in all areas of white-collar crime, we counsel our corporate clients on avoiding difficulties in the first place, by instituting compliance programs. Our goal is to minimize the client's involvement in a criminal case. This involvement has three possible levels:

• As a fact witness in an investigation
• The subject of an investigation
• The target of an investigation (likely to be prosecuted)

Services Available
A Matter of Process

When a white-collar case ensues we work to minimize the client's involvement. The objective being to avoid the possibility of escalation. At the investigation stage we might lobby to make the client a witness in the case, rather than the target of the investigation. However, if the case proceeds to an indictment or other criminal charges being handed down our knowledge of how law enforcement investigators and prosecutors operate further assists in the defense of the client.

Our white-collar crime attorneys include a number of notable criminal experts, including Judge Edward Davis, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Judge Davis' accomplished counsel brings rare and valuable perspective to our White-Collar Crime Practice.

As civil disputes are referred to the FBI, the IRS, Customs, and other law enforcement agencies with greater frequency, white-collar crime investigations have become more prevalent. As a result, the incidence of parallel proceedings in civil and criminal cases has multiplied, which can be problematic because the cases usually affect one another. But even the best criminal lawyers are not generally experienced in handling related civil cases. Civil lawyers tend to avoid criminal matters and thus are not experienced in dealing with critical issues such as immunity.

Imagine you were asked to testify while a criminal investigation was underway. You might choose to assert your Fifth Amendment rights. But your Fifth Amendment assertion might jeopardize the outcome of your business civil case. What makes our White-Collar Crime Practice so unusual, and what has led to referrals from some of the country's most prominent defense attorneys on both the civil and criminal sides, is our ability to manage both kinds of cases.

With substantial experience in negotiating the legal minefield which lies between criminal and civil suits, we can advise as to the best course of action on all fronts. This ability to cover all aspects of white-collar crime distinguishes Akerman and serves our clients' needs in a time when yesterday's business tort is today's fraud-based criminal indictment.

• Deal tax issues
• Food and drug compliance issues
• Fraud
• Economic issues
• Environmental issues
• Corporate officers under SEC investigation
• Forfeiture
• Bank fraud
• Grand jury representation