Erin Sloane's practice focuses on government and internal investigations and white collar criminal matters, with a concentration on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and international anti-corruption issues. She has successfully represented both institutions and individuals in government investigations and prosecutions involving financial and accounting fraud, insider trading, wire fraud, and FCPA issues.

Ms. Sloane has conducted numerous cross-border corruption investigations in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America, and regularly appears before the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in corruption-related investigations. She has successfully achieved multiple non-public DOJ and SEC declinations for clients in FCPA matters and has advised several prominent clients as they have worked to meet the terms of their publicly disclosed FCPA resolutions with the DOJ and SEC. Ms. Sloane also regularly counsels clients on challenging anti-corruption issues in numerous business contexts, including the development and implementation of effective anti-corruption compliance programs and corruption-related considerations in cross-border mergers, joint ventures and acquisitions.

In August 2019, the DOJ and SEC appointed Ms. Sloane as the independent FCPA compliance monitor for a German-based global healthcare company with a market cap of $24 billion. With this appointment, which is set to run for two years, she becomes one of only a handful of women awarded an FCPA monitorship in the past decade. 

Professional Activities

Ms. Sloane is one of the founders of the Innocence Project’s Young Professionals Committee (YPC)—a group of young professionals dedicated to supporting the Innocence Project through fundraising and community outreach efforts. Ms. Sloane is also actively involved in WilmerHale’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.

Experience

  • Ms. Sloane has played key roles in numerous investigations by the DOJ and SEC, as well as many corporate internal investigations, and has led global FCPA due diligence reviews in several multi-billion-dollar M&A transactions. She has also been involved in securing a number of nonpublic prosecution declinations by the DOJ and SEC in connection with possible FCPA violations by various multinational clients. A select list of her recent experience includes:

    • serving as the DOJ/SEC appointed independent FCPA compliance monitor for a German-based supplier of global dialysis products and services in connection with the company’s $231 million resolution of  charges that it violated the FCPA;
    • representing a major foreign technology conglomerate in ongoing SEC and DOJ investigations into allegations of FCPA violations at a US-based avionics subsidiary;
    • representing a major media and communications company in connection with the successful resolution of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York's investigation into its Argentine joint venture's role in the FIFA corruption scandal; 
    • representing a multinational industrial company in an investigation of self-disclosed alleged FCPA violations related to its China-based marine business, resulting in a successful settlement from the SEC and a declination from the DOJ;
    • securing a favorable SEC settlement and DOJ declination on behalf a US-based oilfield services company in connection with a global FCPA investigation involving allegations of improper payments to a Mexican foreign official;
    • representing a major multinational industrial conglomerate in a DOJ and SEC investigation into government sales in the Middle East, resulting in non-public declinations from both agencies;
    • leading a global due diligence review of more than 150 third-party advisors in more than 30 countries in connection with a criminal investigation of a large defense contractor and manufacturer by the DOJ and UK Serious Fraud Office;
    • representing a major US multinational industrial conglomerate in pre- and post-close due diligence investigations of an acquisition target, ultimately resulting in non-public declinations from both the DOJ and SEC;
    • representing a global manufacturer in resolutions with the DOJ, SEC, Department of Treasury and Department of Commerce of charges relating to improper kickbacks under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program, violations of the FCPA and violations of US export laws;
    • representing a major Wall Street broker dealer in connection with parallel criminal and civil investigations of a former bond trader;
    • representing an international financial services firm in an insider trading prosecution of a former investment bank employee;
    • representing a former Congressman and Reagan budget director in connection with parallel civil and criminal securities and accounting fraud cases, including successfully obtaining a nolle prosecui of the criminal indictment; and
    • participating in a secondment to the internal investigations group of a multinational pharmaceutical corporation. 

Recognition

  • Recognized in Who's Who Legal - Investigations 2024 guide.
  • Named to Global Investigations Review's shortlist for 2022 Investigations Professional of the Year.
  • Named to Global Investigations Review's Women in Investigations 2021 list, which “highlights remarkable women in the profession,” who are “achieving great things in a competitive and notoriously tough area of law.”
  • Named a 2021 "Notable Woman in Law" by Crain's New York Business.
  • Recognized in the 2017–2024 editions of Chambers USA Guide as a leading FCPA lawyer and a notable practitioner in the white-collar crime and government investigations category, with clients stating that "her technical competency and relationship to the US government are both top-notch" and "she knows her material very well, she's very responsive and hard-working." She is also recognized for her FCPA practice in the 2018–2024 editions of Chambers Global.
  • Recommended in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 editions of The Legal 500 United States for her corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense practice.
  • Selected to Global Investigations Review's Inaugural "40 Under 40" List, which recognizes the world's leading investigations lawyers under the age of 40.
  • Named a 2014 “Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal.
  • Main Justice selected the firm's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Anti-Corruption Group as the recipient of its most prestigious honor, “Practice Group of the Year,” in 2012.
  • Received the Innocence Project's “Advocate for Justice” award in 2011 for committing significant time and effort to the organization's mission to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted through the use of advances in DNA science.
  • Named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America list.

Insights & News

Credentials

  • Education

    • JD, New York University School of Law, 2003

    • BA, University of Virginia, 1998

      with High Distinction Phi Beta Kappa
  • Admissions

    • New York

  • Clerkships

    • The Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2003 - 2004

Credentials

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