Practice Areas & Industries: Pepper Hamilton LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Pepper Hamilton LLP's criminal defense practice is centered in three areas: white collar criminal litigation and counseling; corporate compliance programs; and internal corporate investigations. We represent companies and individuals (including directors, officers and other professionals) designated as targets, subjects or fact witnesses in federal and state grand jury investigations and prosecutions. The section includes former federal and state prosecutors experienced in all aspects of such proceedings.

Services Available

Pepper assists many clients with internal investigations, including factual and legal analysis and, where appropriate, disclosure to government agencies and implementation of remedial measures. We also assist clients in designing and implementing effective internal compliance programs.

When companies or individuals face criminal legal issues, there often are serious civil litigation implications as well. This section's broad experience, coupled with that of our other litigators, enables us to provide the full range of legal services necessary to respond to such problems.

Representative engagements in this area include the following:

• conducted an internal investigation at a pharmaceutical company regarding the conduct of clinical trials
• represented a hospital facing criminal, civil and regulatory investigations by multiple federal and state agencies
• conducted an internal investigation for a client in the transportation industry involving employee embezzlement and other misconduct
• a distribution company in antitrust grand jury investigation and related private treble damage actions; no indictment returned against company, and private actions settled successfully
• an oil company in antitrust grand jury investigations; no indictment returned against company
• a corporate official in grand jury investigation of environmental hazard; no indictment returned against official
• a warehousing company in grand jury investigation of compliance with customs requirements; no indictment returned against company
• numerous companies in conducting internal corporate investigations of compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, including compliance with securities laws, tax laws, customs laws and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• public and private companies in establishing corporate compliance programs, designed to conform with requirements of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines
• a variety of health care providers, ranging from pharmaceutical manufacturers to physician practices, in Medicare and Medicaid fraud investigations.