WilmerHale has placed among the top three firms in Global Investigations Review’s annual announcement of the world’s 30 leaders for investigations. GIR is a news source focused on the law and practice of international investigations.
The firm finished in third place in GIR’s 2018 ranking. It is the fourth time in as many years that the firm was ranked at or near the top of GIR’s list of the world’s most accomplished investigations practices. In 2017, WilmerHale was GIR’s top-ranked practice. The previous two years it was ranked second. Also, in 2016, GIR named the firm the “Most Impressive investigations Practice of the Year.” This year’s rankings were announced at GIR’s awards dinner on October 25 at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC.
In discussing WilmerHale’s continued strength in the investigations area, GIR said in a write-up of the firm: “WilmerHale’s investigations practice has racked up a number of major cases that few competitors can match. The firm is a front-runner for its work in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases and has represented parties in nearly all of the major corruption investigations of the past few years including Unaoil, the Panama Papers, VimpelCom and Petrobras.”
The firm’s representation of Panasonic Avionics in its $280 million FCPA settlement with the Department of Justice was also cited by GIR. The publication noted Partner Ronald Machen’s lead role in that representation.
GIR pointed to the large number of lawyers—more than 100 strong—at the firm with government experience, many who previously held senior level positions at the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. Such experience gives the firm’s clients under government scrutiny access to a firm with a vast body of relevant government experience and knowledge unrivaled by other major law firms.
GIR noted that since 2008 WilmerHale has advised on more FCPA settlements than virtually all other firms, save one. The publication also observed that WilmerHale Partners Jamie Gorelick and Sharon Cohen Levin and Counsel Alison Geary were among those included in GIR’s “Women in Investigations 2018” list, a special edition profile featuring lawyers who are “achieving great things in a competitive and notoriously tough area of the law.”