John D. Vandevelde is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Los Angeles office. He is an experienced trial attorney, a former Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles, a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and named one of "The Best Lawyers in America," one of the "Top 100 Super Lawyers" in California and a "California Attorney of the Year." His practice is primarily white collar criminal defense in federal and state court. He has handled a broad variety of criminal matters. His more recent representations have involved state and federal public corruption matters, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities fraud, environmental crimes, antitrust violations, espionage-related matters, health care fraud and HIPAA-related matters.
Mr. Vandevelde served as a prosecutor in the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. He tried approximately twenty cases, including a series of trials of individuals who "raided" a small mutual fund. He was the lead prosecutor in a major securities fraud case, United States v. Ruth Handler, et al., known as the Mattel Toy Co. securities fraud case, which resulted in convictions of all charged. He was an Assistant Division Chief responsible for all criminal appeals, and was later Chief of Complaints, where he was responsible for all new cases filed. He received a Special Commendation by the Department of Justice for Outstanding Service.
For the past thirty years, Mr. Vandevelde has primarily defended clients in criminal matters. He has defended clients in more than thirty trials since leaving the government, covering a wide variety of charges in both federal and state courts, including:
· a federal court trial of a scientist charged with environmental crimes based on alleged "sham-testing" to dispose of waste materials, resulting in a hung jury and the dropping of all felony charges;
· a federal court trial of a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff for skimming money seized in drug cases, resulting in a not guilty verdict;
· a civil rights trial in federal court representing a policeman injured by other officers in the course of a racially-charged false arrest, resulting in a record $2.5 million verdict;
· a federal trial of the Chief Financial Officer of a publicly-traded company for criminal tax fraud, resulting in a hung jury and the ultimate dropping of all felony charges;
· a highly publicized "patricide" murder trial resulting in an involuntary manslaughter verdict; and
· a state court trial defending a retail merchant accused of dealing in stolen "Guess" brand jeans, resulting in a not guilty verdict.
In 2006, Mr. Vandevelde and partner, Janet Levine, received "California Attorney of the Year" awards for their representation of accused double-agent Katrina Leung. After a widely publicized legal battle, they obtained a dismissal of all charges based on prosecutorial misconduct. They then negotiated a global resolution of all criminal and tax matters, with no additional time in custody and the return of most of the client's seized assets.
Mr. Vandevelde has been a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1996 and has been listed as a criminal lawyer in every edition of The Best Lawyers In America. He has been recognized in the peer and client review-based Chambers USA as a "Band 1" white collar crime and government investigations lawyer. His peers voted him a "Super Lawyer" and a "Top 100 Super Lawyer" in California.
Mr. Vandevelde is active in numerous bar and community organizations, including serving currently as a Director of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, and in the past as an Assistant Vice President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, President of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a Commissioner on the California State Bar Legal Services Trust Fund Commission, Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association's White Collar Crime Committee, and Chair of its West Coast Regional Subcommittee. He is also a member of the Cowboy Lawyers Association.
Mr. Vandevelde received a Bachelor of Science degree in business from California Polytechnic State University in 1968, and, after serving as an officer in the United States Coast Guard, attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 1975. He graduated magna cum laude. He also served on Law Review and had a note published dealing with the issues of search and seizure and independent state grounds. He was also a teaching fellow at Loyola and has been a guest teacher in criminal law classes and trial advocacy classes.
Before joining Crowell & Moring, Mr. Mr. Vandevelde was a partner in the Los Angeles firm Lightfoot Vandevelde Sadowsky Crouchley Rutherford & Levine LLP.
Publications
· "Recent 'Outliers' in Health Care Criminal Cases - 'A Report From The Wild West'," 2009 American Bar Association Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime (March 2009). Co-Authors: John D. Vandevelde and Thomas E. Holliday.