New York office. His practice focuses on white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement defense, internal investigations and compliance monitoring, complex civil litigation, and information technology-related investigations, counseling, and litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Southwell served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Southwell is an experienced trial and appellate attorney and regularly represents corporate executives and individuals in connection with white-collar criminal investigations and prosecutions by federal and state prosecutors as well as related civil investigations by a wide range of regulators. Mr. Southwell also regularly represents companies and boards in these types of matters and has significant experience in conducting internal corporate investigations and compliance monitoring. Substantively, his areas of expertise include securities and accounting fraud, tax fraud, health care fraud and compliance, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and public corruption, among others. Additionally, Mr. Southwell counsels a variety of technology-focused clients on privacy, information technology, and network security issues.
Recent significant engagements include: - Represents a major retailer in an internal investigation and defense of grand jury investigation and OSHA investigation related to workplace incident.
- Assisted Gibson Dunn partner who served as Independent Monitor for a medical device company pursuant to a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the United States Attorney's Office in New Jersey, including revising health care compliance policies and training and ensuring compliance with the Anti-Kickback Statute and other relevant health care laws, regulations, and corporate policies.
- Represented a private equity principal and fund in the public corruption “pay to play” investigation being conducted by the New York Attorney General's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Represents an investment bank in a securities fraud investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Department of Justice.
- Represents a dermatologist who is the target of a criminal health care fraud investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern District of New York United States Attorney's Office.
- Represented a former executive at an accounting firm in connection with a tax shelter-related investigation by the Southern District of New York United States Attorney's Office.
- Represented a home health aide provider who was under criminal Indictment on health care-related larceny charges brought by the New York Attorney General's Office.
- Represents a prominent US-based on-line company in its interactions with the New Jersey United States Attorney's Office related to automated attacks on the company's web site.
- Represented Facebook in an investigation into its privacy and safety policies and procedures by the New York Attorney General's Office.
- Represented a company related to a criminal referral of two former employees who illegally accessed the company’s computer systems and stole trade secrets. As a result of the representation, the Southern District of New York United States Attorney's Office brought criminal charges against the two former employees.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Southwell served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York from 2001 through 2007. As a member of that office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force for three years, Mr. Southwell investigated and prosecuted a wide range of cases under the federal securities laws, including accounting fraud, insider trading, fraudulent offering of securities, market manipulation, and hedge fund improprieties. Mr. Southwell also focused on investigating and prosecuting computer hacking and intrusion cases and intellectual property offenses, as well as other high-technology offenses. Additionally, Mr. Southwell prosecuted a range of cases including wire and mail frauds, insurance fraud, public corruption, Foreign Corrupt Practice Act violations, bank secrecy act violations, identity theft, firearms crimes, tax offenses, child exploitation, and immigration crimes. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Southwell tried a dozen felony cases and handled over a dozen appeals before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. Southwell is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law where he teaches a seminar on cyber-crimes, covering computer misuse crimes, intellectual property offenses, the Fourth Amendment in cyber-space, computer evidence at trial, data breach and privacy issues, and information security, among other areas.
Mr. Southwell earned his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law. Following law school, Mr. Southwell was a Law Clerk for the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Southwell is a member of the firm’s White-Collar Defense and Investigations, Crisis Management, Securities Enforcement, Electronic Discovery and Information Law, Intellectual Property, and Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Groups. Mr. Southwell also serves on the Firmwide Diversity Committee.
Please click below for detailed profiles on specific areas of Mr. Southwell’s practice.
White Collar and Securities Fraud Profile