Internal Investigations

When an audit committee, governance committee, board of directors, or general counsel of a company is confronted by allegations of wrongdoing, immediate action is required. Whether the issue is improper acts of individuals, regulatory compliance matters, or internal controls, every step a company takes will invariably be viewed with scrutiny by federal or state regulators, prosecutors, or shareholders. The scope of our practice includes both the representation of individual employees, as well as boards of directors and audit or governance committees of publicly traded companies, through complex internal investigations.

We Provide Comprehensive Services

We understand the duties of boards of directors as well as members of board committees, including special committees, audit committees and governance committees. We attempt to minimize the criminal, regulatory and litigation risks associated with internal investigations.

Our approach to internal investigations is designed to conduct a thorough, independent investigation but to bring efficiency to the process by:

  • Examining and determining the scope of an investigation at its inception

  • Properly planning the investigation at the initial stages

  • Engaging outside private investigators, forensic technology experts or accountants, each as necessary and coordinating efforts among various investigators

  • Securing cooperation from relevant parties that need to be interviewed

  • Analyzing attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine issues

  • Counseling the audit committee or general counsel supervising an investigation

We Have a Wide Range of Experience

Examples of our attorneys’ experience in conducting internal investigations or other board of director committee engagements include:

  • Internal investigation of officers of an outside company relating to bidding for government licenses with an affiliate

  • Internal investigation involving whistleblower communication of double set of books of revenues and amounts from programming affiliates

  • Internal investigation for multi-billion dollar market cap public company dealing with economic bribery, involving felony convictions for subsidiaries

  • Representation of outside directors in two separate public companies regarding alleged misconduct of CFO and CEO

  • Representation of outside directors of companies regarding various misconduct by officers and inside directors

  • Appointed by the SEC as receiver which included oversight of internal investigation into misconduct of company directors

  • Internal investigation for national pharmaceutical company concerning violations of DEA regulations

  • Representation of mortgage brokerage company in internal investigation concerning allegations of mortgage fraud

  • Internal investigation for global medical supply company concerning violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

  • Internal investigation for publicly traded national homebuilder, and defense of federal grand jury investigation