A Playbook for Corporate DOJ Investigations

Corporate investigations under the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (“DOJ”) are expected to increase in the coming months.  Navigating such investigations can be complex, distracting, and costly, and comes with the risk of prosecution and significant collateral consequences for the company. 

Recently, Cleary Gottlieb partners and former DOJ prosecutors, Lev Dassin, Jonathan Kolodner, and Rahul Mukhi, published a chapter on “Representing Corporations in United States Attorney’s Office and DOJ Investigations,” which can serve as a useful guide for in-house counsel to prepare for an investigation or manage an ongoing matter.  The chapter, available here, covers topics including DOJ’s organizational structure, the typical path of a corporate criminal investigation, recent policy initiatives at DOJ that reflect an effort to provide greater transparency with respect to corporate investigations, the process by which federal prosecutors make critical decisions about filing charges and resolving investigations, and the opportunities for counsel to advocate for their clients along the way.