White collar defense has become increasingly important to corporations and executives as regulatory agencies scrutinize their activities and refer them to law enforcement authorities. The U.S. Department of Justice, as well as Florida's Statewide Prosecutor and local prosecutors, has made pursuit of white collar crime a top law enforcement priority. The reach of law enforcement has grown longer as existing laws have been broadened and penalties have grown tougher. As a result, virtually any company can become the target of a government investigation and companies and executives are now being held responsible for their employees' acts. Just as serious is the threat of prosecution, since even unfounded allegations can destroy a company or an individual's reputation and financial security.
Gray Robinson's White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigation group includes the former Statewide Prosecutor of Florida, a former Deputy Attorney General for Florida and former federal agents. The group provides comprehensive counsel in a variety of sophisticated white-collar issues to corporations, directors, officers and employees in both the federal and state law enforcement arenas. We work closely with most, if not all, of the firm's other practice areas (e.g., banking, alcohol and tobacco, corporate, government, litigation, securities, health care, environmental, entertainment and sports, bankruptcy, real estate, employment, and taxation) to prevent governmental inquiries from becoming investigations, or to prevent governmental investigations from becoming actual criminal cases. When criminal prosecution is unavoidable, we tap into our depth of experience to represent those charged with violating federal or state statutes.
In addition to representing individuals who are under criminal investigation or charged, we also spend an equal amount of our time working with the same practice groups to coordinate federal or state subpoena response, represent grand jury or trial witnesses, assist in the design and implementation of corporate compliance plans, and conduct and manage internal corporate investigations, the goal of which generally is the identification of those who have committed the fraud against or stolen from corporations, banks or lenders and the collection of the evidence which can be used to investigate and possibly prosecute them.
Gray Robinson's White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigation group's experience extends to defense counsel at the grand jury, trial and appellate stages, as well as administrative enforcement proceedings. The team has extensive experience in efficiently organizing and defending cases which are paper and electronic data intensive. We also have significant experience in directing and managing the efforts of forensic computer, accounting, and general investigative resources for corporate and individual clients.
