Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Alison handles government and internal investigations, complex civil litigation, and compliance and regulatory cases, with an emphasis on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) matters. She defends companies and individuals against criminal and civil investigations alleging violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act (FCA), and involving allegations of healthcare, tax, and securities fraud, and other business frauds. Alison also counsels clients on matters related to developing, implementing, evaluating, and auditing internal compliance and ethics programs. Most recently, she represented Olympus Corporation of the Americas in connection with an FCPA investigation of Olympus’s sales and marketing practices in Latin America resulting in a deferred prosecution agreement and $22.8 million fine, announced March 1, 2016. In 2014, Latinvex named her one of Latin America’s Top 50 Female Lawyers, and in 2016, Latinvex named her as one of Latin America’s Top 100 Female Lawyers.

Amy Maloney

Amy Maloney focuses her practice on project finance and development, working with sponsors and financing sources including commercial and investment banks, developers and independent power producers, private equity funds, insurance companies, and other institutional investors. Amy advises clients on the development, construction, operation, and debt and equity financing of various types of energy and infrastructure projects, including wind, solar, and other renewable assets, gas-fired facilities, gas and liquids pipelines, transmission lines, and transportation infrastructure.

Benjamin Stein

An associate in the corporate business transactions practice at Morgan Lewis, Benjamin Stein represents public and private companies in a variety of corporate transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and debt financings and SEC registered securities offerings. He also counsels public companies with respect to securities disclosure issues, corporate governance matters, NYSE and NASDAQ compliance issues and reporting obligations under the Exchange Act. Ben also has experience representing both companies and underwriters in a variety of capital markets transactions. For more information, view Benjamin’s bio at https://www.morganlewis.com/bios/benjaminstein.

Carl Valenstein

Carl focuses his practice on domestic and international corporate and securities matters, mergers and acquisitions, project development, and transactional finance. He counsels extensively in the life science, telecom/electronics, and maritime industries, and he has worked broadly in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Carl advises clients on international risk management, including compliance with the foreign investment review process (Exon-Florio/CFIUS), export control and sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-boycott, and anticorruption (FCPA) laws and regulations. He also advises on internal investigations, enforcement cases, and dispute resolution proceedings relating to his transactional and regulatory practice.

Eric Bord

Eric S. Bord counsels clients on corporate immigration issues involving the recruitment, hiring, transfer, and retention of personnel worldwide. He also advises businesses on compliance and risk management in connection with their global immigration programs. This includes counseling on compliance with I-9 and E-Verify rules, advising clients during immigration investigations, and conducting immigration due diligence for corporate transactions. Eric heads Morgan Lewis’s immigration compliance and risk management practice.

Eric Sitarchuk

Eric represents clients in government investigations and white-collar litigation. With 30 years of experience in this area, he represents clients in a wide variety of white-collar criminal matters, False Claims Act (FCA) and qui tam litigation, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other complex federal and state investigations. Working with boards of directors, audit committees, and corporate management, Eric has conducted numerous internal investigations, and advised on the creation and implementation of corporate compliance and ethics programs. He serves as chair of the firm’s white collar and corporate investigations practice. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Eric defends clients in federal criminal and civil cases that allege healthcare fraud; defense contract fraud; FCPA violations and other official corruption; securities fraud; antitrust violations; import/export offenses; theft of trade secrets; money laundering; drug diversion; tax fraud; pyramid schemes; commercial bribery; and environmental violations. In defending organizations and individuals during US government investigations, Eric has persuaded prosecutors to take no action and close investigations of Fortune 500 companies, large healthcare institutions, and prominent lawyers, executives, and public officials. He has tried numerous cases. Eric has been listed in International Who’s Who of Business Crime Lawyers (2003–2015) and International Who's Who of Investigations (2014–2016).

Ethan Johnson

Ethan W. Johnson counsels clients on a variety of regulatory and transactional matters, with a focus on hedge fund and private equity fund formation, and guides investment managers through the legal intricacies of international operations. He also advises clients on establishing offices and operations outside the United States, developing and offering financial products and services sold on a global basis, and building global compliance programs.

Felipe Alice

Felipe Alice’s practice focuses on energy transactions and infrastructure projects relating to energy and corporate issues. Representing diverse clients, his work involves complex contracts, corporate restructurings, project finance, international data privacy issues, and real estate transactions. Additionally, Felipe is part of the cross-practice global workforce team that provides clients with integrated cross-border counseling and strategic planning on issues related to labor, employment, benefits, and immigration.

Gerald Kehoe

Gerald focuses on private investment capital formation and investment product structuring. He advises fund sponsors managing vehicles investing in energy, infrastructure, renewables, buyouts, and other strategies. He also advises sponsors and global institutional investors on structuring and implementing co-investments, direct investing pools, master feeder partnerships, and other complex investment structures. Jerry advises US and international sponsors in fund launches, raising substantial commitments for investments in power and energy generation and transmission assets, real estate, solar and wind projects, patent royalty strategies, leveraged buyouts, clean technology, and other infrastructure assets. Commitments are sourced from institutional US and international investors, including sovereign wealth funds, US and global pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, and foundations. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business ranked Jerry from 2009 to 2015. He is active in international business associations and committees promoting the development of commercial law and trade.

Humberto Padilla Gonzalez

Humberto represents clients in mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. He assists clients with complex financial, cross-border and US domestic M&A transactions, private equity fund investments, and internal compliance investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), as well as data privacy issues and simple operational matters throughout Latin America. Part of a cross-practice Global Workforce team providing integrated cross-border advice, counseling, and strategic planning, Humberto also advises clients on labor, employment, benefits, and immigration issues in Latin America.

James Vazquez-Azpiri

James counsels corporate clients on hiring and retaining foreign employees in his business immigration law practice. He advises businesses on labor certifications, specialty occupation petitions, and intracompany transfers. Clients rely on James for guidance through immigration law compliance during mergers, acquisitions, and corporate restructurings. He helps clients think and work proactively by providing them with traditional compliance policy reviews and audits, case management and litigation technology, and international executive travel and foreign resident worker visa processing. A co-head of the firm’s global immigration practice, James is part of Morgan Lewis’s cross-practice Global Workforce team. The group provides integrated cross-border advice, counseling, and strategic planning across the spectrum of labor, employment, benefits, and immigration issues. Legal and human rights groups have acclaimed James’s pro bono work. He has received both the C. Anthony Friedrich Memorial Award from the International Human Rights Law Group and the Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services from the State Bar of California.

Jerome Akman

Jerry maintains a multidisciplinary international law practice, including work on foreign investment in the United States and abroad (acquisitions and establishment of new companies); general legal representation of foreign companies and their US subsidiaries in connection with matters both within the US and abroad; negotiation of agreements (financial, licensing, distribution and agency and other commercial agreements); defense of foreign clients in US and foreign litigation; protection of foreign creditors’ interests in US bankruptcy proceedings; and matters arising under US trade laws (antidumping, countervailing duty, US customs, trade sanctions, and other import and export restrictions).

Julio Vega

Julio represents public and private companies in a broad range of industries, including biotechnology, medical devices, nanotechnology, advanced materials, software, networking, e-commerce, and fintech. Julio has experience counseling clients on venture capital and other private equity financing transactions, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, licensing, and corporate partnering transactions. He regularly counsels clients on general corporate, employee compensation, and corporate governance matters. Julio is also very active in the representation of start-up and emerging growth companies in the life sciences and technology industries. Julio has experience on international transactions and has been listed in Chambers Global for Life Sciences.

Karen Butcher

Recognized for her intellectual property (IP) work, Karen A. Butcher advises clients on maximizing the value of their IP and protecting their intellectual assets. She focuses on brands, creative works, technology, and related IP. Karen handles transactions and helps clients to structure the ownership and licensing of IP within their corporate group and to resolve complex disputes when they arise. A practice leader in the firm’s intellectual property practice, Karen brings an international perspective to strategic business issues and regularly speaks and writes about IP.

Katherine Dobson

Katherine focuses her practice on financial services transactions involving the application of derivatives in trading, distressed debt transactions, and legal and regulatory issues. She represents hedge funds, banks, broker-dealers, and other market participants in complex cross-border and US futures, derivatives, and commodities transactions as well as creditors’ rights matters including workouts and corporate reorganizations.

Kelly Kuschel

Kelly is part of a team of attorneys representing real estate owners and stakeholders in connection with their ownership, use, and financing of real estate. Clients include national and international companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), institutional lenders, private equity funds, pension funds, and advisers. While attending law school, Kelly served as an associate editor of the Journal of International Law. He earned a certificate in Latin American and Latino studies and served as the mentor and recruiting liaison for the Latin American Law Students Association.

Leiv Blad

Leiv Blad focuses on antitrust investigations and litigation, mergers and acquisitions, and class action and multiparty litigation. He represents clients in government investigations and private litigation raising price fixing, monopolization, and intellectual property issues in various industries, including the financial services, high technology, pharmaceutical, and energy industries.

Louis Ramos

Louis Ramos is a former federal prosecutor and in-house lawyer whose practice focuses on white collar litigation, government and internal investigations, and compliance counseling. Lou’s experience includes leading investigations and counseling clients on matters involving issues of anticorruption, antibribery, antikickback, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Bribery Act, and good research and manufacturing practices. He has led investigations in the United States and around the world, including Latin America, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. Lou also has a strong litigation background from his time in public service—he served for nearly six years as an Assistant US Attorney in the District of Columbia, was the lead federal prosecutor in 19 jury trials and more than 30 bench trials, and directed numerous grand jury investigations into violations of federal and local criminal laws.

Luis Torres-Cervantes

Luis represents both institutional lenders and corporate borrowers. He works with clients on secured credit facilities, acquisition financing, film financing, loan syndications, litigation funding, and other financial matters. Before joining Morgan Lewis, Luis was a staff editor of the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law.

Marcus Marsh

Marcus Marsh represents traditional banks, business development companies, and other institutional lenders and financing sources such as hedge funds, borrowers, and issuers in a variety of financing transactions, including acquisition financings, senior and mezzanine financing arrangements, and debt restructurings. Marcus also advises clients in matters related to structured finance transactions, including the use of derivatives in securitizations.

Margaret Gatti

Margaret Gatti represents US and non-US companies, universities, and financial institutions in matters involving economic sanctions, export controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), customs and import regulations, free trade agreements, antiboycott regulations (EAR and IRS), anticorruption laws (FCPA and UKBA), anti-money laundering legislation, international commercial sales terms (INCOTERMS), international e-commerce, and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reporting, as well as national security issues.

Mark Zelek

Mark focuses on employment and employee benefits counseling and litigation involving wage and hour, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, and retaliation claims in addition to whistleblower, noncompetition, and trade secrets matters. As leader of the firm’s global labor and immigration practice, Mark handles international and Puerto Rican labor law matters. He advises U.S. clients on Latin American and Puerto Rican labor law and Latin American clients on U.S. labor law.

Melissa Rodriguez

Melissa advises clients on the full spectrum of labor and employment law matters. This includes including single-plaintiff, class, and collective action litigation (both wage and hour and discrimination claims); wage and hour and other employment counseling; traditional labor work. In her litigation practice, she represents employers in individual, class, and collective action litigation, and in administrative agency actions concerning federal and state labor and employment statutes. Her clients hail from sectors including the retail, airline, transportation, food services and financial services industries. Melissa routinely counsels employers with operations in Puerto Rico and represents employers in federal litigation and administrative matters in Puerto Rico.

Michael Reilly

Michael has more than 30 years of experience representing public and private bondholders and lenders in financial restructurings. He represents clients in a wide array of industries in the United States, UK/Europe, and Latin America. Michael is a member of INSOL and he is one of only a handful of lawyers who have been elected by their peers as a fellow in both the American College of Bankruptcy and the American College of Investment Counsel. He was listed in Legal 500 Latin America for Banking & Finance in 2013.

Robert Brochin

Leveraging 30 years of trial experience and a decade of high-level public service in state government, Robert M. Brochin represents corporate clients facing complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters in a wide range of areas, from real estate to financial services. Bobby brings a passion for public law and human rights issues, combined with insights into the business regulatory process, to his practice. He is managing partner of Morgan Lewis’s Miami office.

Robert McDonnell

Robert concentrates on environmental, land use, and real estate matters. He counsels clients on compliance and permitting, defends them in enforcement cases, and represents them in trials in the state and federal courts and in hearings before administrative agencies and boards. Bob has also represented fiduciaries in trust disputes and will contests, and has tried commercial and maritime cases involving breach of contract and tort claims.

Roman Popakiuk

Roman Popadiuk, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, is an International Affairs Advisor and former Principal for Morgan Lewis Consulting. A retired member of the career Senior Foreign Service, Roman brings more than 30 years of experience in the areas of national security, political risk analysis, communications strategy and energy policy, including serving on the National Security Councils of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. With his vast experience and contacts that span the globe, Roman brings a unique insight into international political and business matters. From 1989 to 1992, Roman served as deputy assistant to the President and deputy press secretary for Foreign Affairs under President George H. W. Bush, a position he also held toward the end of President Ronald Reagan’s administration. Roman began his career in the Foreign Service in 1981. He served in Mexico City from 1982 to 1984, where he did consular and political work and was special assistant to the ambassador. He then served a two-year tour with the Department of State and the National Security Council.

Salvador Juncadella

Salvador J. Juncadella consults on business and finance matters relating to the laws, customs, and lawyers of more than 25 countries—spanning from Mexico to Argentina, and including the Caribbean nations. Salvador brings to Morgan Lewis’s clients more than 25 years’ experience as corporate counsel for Exxon Corporation’s affiliates in Latin America. He also served as general counsel of Esso Inter_America, Inc., a Florida-based regional office of Exxon Corporation petroleum interests in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Salvador is admitted to practice in Cuba only.

Sanford W. Stark

Sanford W. Stark is a partner in the Washington D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and co-chair of the firm’s Global Tax Controversy and Litigation Practice Group. Sanford counsels on a wide range of complex domestic and international tax issues, including a significant emphasis on cross-border transfer pricing. He has served as counsel in a number of the largest tax controversy and litigation matters in recent years. He advises clients in various industries and on all aspects of the tax controversy process, including pre-audit, audit, administrative appeals, Advance Pricing Agreements, and Competent Authority proceedings. Sanford litigates tax disputes in federal trial and appellate courts and State courts, and his transfer pricing experience includes planning and internal restructurings in addition to controversy and litigation.

Scott Farmer

Scott Farmer advises clients on all aspects of international tax planning and controversy with the Internal Revenue Service. His clients include US firms engaged in non-US business activities as well as non-US firms operating within the United States. Scott frequently lectures at the World Trade Institute and the Tax Executives Institute. He also writes on international tax topics, including “Partnership Dispositions of Stock in Controlled Foreign Corporations,” 110 Tax Notes 1319 (March 20, 2006). Scott is named one of the country’s leading practitioners in taxation by Chambers USA, one of the world’s leading practitioners in international tax by Chambers Global, and a leader in mergers and acquisitions and cross-border structuring by International Tax Review’s World Tax.

Shana White

Shana represents clients in matters related to transactional finance, including secured lending transactions, workouts, intercreditor agreements and debtor-in-possession financings.

Stacey Anne Mahoney

Stacey Anne Mahoney’s practice includes all aspects of antitrust law. In her antitrust litigation practice, she represents clients as plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state courts throughout the US, in cases involving restraints of trade, monopolization, tying, exclusive dealing, price discrimination, false advertising, unfair competition, and related business torts. In her merger practice, Stacey develops and implements domestic and international merger advocacy strategies, including trial as needed. Stacey’s counseling practice includes advising on distribution and pricing issues, as well as joint ventures and other competitor collaborations. She has worked extensively in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, payment systems, financial services, advertising and marketing, retail, and publishing. Stacey is consistently ranked among the top antitrust lawyers in New York by Chambers USA and Super Lawyers, The Legal 500, and most recently by Global Competition Review. Chambers USA recognizes her “excellent antitrust litigation practice” and describes her as “very smart and very responsive,” “very perceptive and very knowledgeable,” offering a “highly pragmatic approach to matters.” Super Lawyers reports that she is a “fearless and innovative litigator, able to adjust to any type of antitrust case,” “with an outstanding ability to think strategically” with “the knowledge and litigation skills to match the most senior antitrust litigators.”

Steven Navarro

Steven concentrates on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity transactions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances primarily in the life sciences, energy and natural resources, and industrial sectors. He advises private equity funds, and multinational public and private companies on complex acquisitions, dispositions, and securities transactions. His practice also encompasses public and private M&A, stock and asset transactions, and purchases and sales resulting from bankruptcy and out-of-court restructurings. He is group leader of the New York office corporate, finance and investment management practice, and a former co-leader of the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice.

Thane Scott

Thane concentrates his practice on matters involving antitrust and trade regulation. Throughout the past 30 years, he has counseled industry leaders and litigated prominent cases that define modern antitrust law. He actively litigates in both state and federal courts and has served as lead or liaison counsel in numerous multidistrict, complex, and class action cases. Thane regularly defends business and consumer class actions involving antitrust and business tort claims, including class certification issues, and he has successfully concluded well over 100 government investigations of mergers and other coordinated conduct involving national and international companies. He also handles disputes involving multi-tiered distribution systems and supply chain management, particularly in technology-intensive industries. Thane has achieved widespread recognition in leading national and international surveys of clients and fellow professionals. He is listed in The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, and is also featured in international rankings such as Cross Border Competition Handbook and the PLC Which Lawyer? publications.

Thomas Mellor

Thomas represents banks and other financial institutions in a variety of debt finance transactions in the United States and globally, including syndicated, club and bilateral lending transactions (investment grade and leveraged) as well as project finance and restructuring transactions. He has particular experience in cross-border financings (especially in Latin America, Europe, and Asia) as well as financings with structural or other sorts of complexity. Tom has been ranked by Latinvex as one of Latin America's Top 100 Lawyers (2014-2015). Chambers Latin America 2017 has ranked Tom in Banking & Finance, Latin America-wide.

Timothy DeSieno

Tim DeSieno advises institutional investors in protecting and restructuring their investments globally in cases of economic, political, financial, or other stress. Tim’s work includes advising a group of holders of untendered Argentine sovereign bonds in connection with their “pari passu” rights, advising sovereign creditors of Greece and Grenada, advising creditors of nationalized businesses in Venezuela, advising creditors on their exposure to stressed banks in Iceland and Ireland, and advising creditors on their exposure to stressed energy companies in Latin America and Europe. Tim’s recent work includes advising creditors and creditor committees in restructurings in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Russia, and Thailand.

Tsugumichi Watanabe

Tsugu’s practice focuses on financing matters with particular emphasis on: project finance and infrastructure transactions; leveraged and asset-based lending financings, including aircraft financings; loan trading; and loan restructurings and refinancings, including in a bankruptcy context. Tsugu currently serves as the Managing Partner of Morgan Lewis’s Tokyo Office. Tsugu counsels clients in real estate, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters, including employment issues involving Japanese affiliates of multinational companies. He also assists Japanese clients in international arbitration proceedings and US litigation, and he advises both Japanese and non-Japanese clients on cross-border transactions originating from inside and outside Japan.

Ulises Pin

Ulises represents US and foreign communications and technology companies on corporate, financial, and regulatory matters. He also advises private equity firms, venture capital funds, and financial institutions on investments in the telecommunications, media, and technology (TMT) sectors. Ulises represents clients before the Federal Communications Commission and government agencies in Mexico, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He has substantial experience in cross-border transactions. Ulises’s practice covers all sectors of the TMT market, including wireline, wireless and international communications, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), infrastructure projects (land and submarine networks), satellite services, and emerging technologies. He counsels on complex cross-border transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; public offerings; joint ventures; and private and public equity investments. He also represents public and private companies in international corporate and finance transactions across industries, including telecommunications, technology, energy, retail, and real estate.

Legal 500

Our Team

FAQs

Marketing Resources

Newsletters

Contact us