Boyd Johnson serves as the Co-Chair of the White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice and the Partner-in-Charge of the firm’s New York Office. Leveraging 30 years of public and private sector experience, Mr. Johnson represents companies and senior executives in criminal investigations, regulatory enforcement matters, and related civil litigations. Over the past three decades, Mr. Johnson has served in a variety of senior roles, including as Co-Chair of WilmerHale’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice; as General Counsel for Soros Fund Management, the investment management firm founded by George Soros; and Deputy United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As a skilled trial lawyer who has tried cases to verdict and managed litigation matters in-house, Mr. Johnson is uniquely positioned to bring high-stakes disputes to positive resolutions for clients. For the past decade, Chambers USA has consistently recognized Mr. Johnson as one of the nation’s leading defense lawyers, most recently with its highest Bank 1 ranking.

As the Co-Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice with attorneys in New York, Washington DC, Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and London, Mr. Johnson leads representations of public and private companies and their boards and senior executives in criminal and civil investigations conducted by the DOJ, the SEC, the CFTC, FINRA, the New York State Attorney General’s Office, the New York State Department of Financial Services, and the New York City Department of Investigation. Mr. Johnson has successfully represented companies in high-stakes criminal and civil cases involving securities and accounting fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and public corruption violations, antitrust inquiries, Bank Secrecy Act and AML issues, False Claims Act and FIRREA actions, and cybersecurity incidents. He also represents companies and their senior executives in a variety of complex civil litigation.

From 2018 to 2020, Mr. Johnson served as General Counsel for Soros Fund Management. In that role, he oversaw legal, compliance, and regulatory functions in New York, London, and Hong Kong, and supervised the firm’s litigations, employment disputes, and regulatory inquiries. Mr. Johnson managed relationships with the SEC, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. He supervised the negotiation and structuring of capital markets transactions; mergers and acquisitions; and hundreds of investments across public and private equities and credit, venture capital, distressed debt, global macro, real estate, and other strategies. Mr. Johnson served on the boards of directors of the firm’s offshore and onshore funds and portfolio companies. He also served as a member of the firm’s Leadership Team and the Valuation, Liquidity and Risk and Cybersecurity Committees.

Before joining WilmerHale, Mr. Johnson served as the Deputy US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and oversaw the litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the SDNY. He supervised over 200 Assistant US Attorneys and managed the largest criminal enforcement effort against hedge fund insider trading in history; the criminal prosecutions and civil forfeiture proceedings related to the Bernard Madoff fraud; and FCPA, money laundering, tax fraud, and cybersecurity investigations and prosecutions. As Deputy US Attorney, Mr. Johnson participated in the creation of the SDNY’s Civil Frauds Unit and oversaw False Claims Act and FIRREA lawsuits against financial services firms and healthcare companies.

Before becoming Deputy US Attorney, Mr. Johnson served as Chief of the SDNY's Public Corruption Unit. In that capacity, he supervised bribery and embezzlement prosecutions of members of the US Congress, New York State legislators, and New York City council members, as well as corruption investigations at the United Nations. While at the US Attorney’s Office, Mr. Johnson also served as the Chief of the International Narcotics Trafficking Unit, focusing on the extradition and prosecution of drug kingpins, narco-terrorists, and the leaders of global money laundering networks. In that role, he worked with the US Treasury Department to build prosecutions against the leaders of the Cali Cartel and Taliban based on violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Before serving as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Johnson represented companies in antitrust, false advertising, accounting fraud, and securities fraud matters for five years at another international law firm. After graduating from Cornell Law School, he clerked for the Honorable Laughlin E. Waters in the US District Court for the Central District of California. 

Professional and Community Activities

Mr. Johnson is an active member of the New York City Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Federal Bar Council. He has served on the New York City Bar’s White Collar Crime Committee. He is actively engaged with a number of New York–based not-for-profit groups, including serving on the board of the New York Legal Assistance Group.

Mr. Johnson is frequently invited to speak on issues related to corporate criminal liability, financial fraud and insider trading, the FCPA, anti-bribery and corruption, money laundering, cybersecurity, corporate governance and culture, and conducting effective and efficient internal investigations. He has been a frequent speaker at SIFMA conferences, and has lectured at Yale Law School, Cornell Law School and NYU Law School.