Michael S. Diamant is a senior associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and corporate compliance.

Mr. Diamant has broad white collar defense experience representing corporations and corporate executives facing criminal and regulatory charges. He has represented clients in an array of matters, including accounting fraud and antitrust violations, before the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Diamant also has managed numerous internal investigations for publicly traded corporations and conducted fieldwork—including more than one-hundred witness interviews—in ten different countries on four continents. In the area of corporate compliance, Mr. Diamant regularly advises major corporations on the structure and effectiveness of their compliance programs. This often includes reviewing reporting mechanisms, internal payment controls, and compliance messaging, as well as drafting new compliance materials, such as ethics and anti‑corruption handbooks.

Among Mr. Diamant’s substantive areas of expertise is the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Mr. Diamant conducts internal investigations for corporations regarding possible violations of the FCPA and assists them in complying with government subpoenas and negotiating settlements with enforcement agencies. He also routinely advises corporations on the adequacy of the design and implementation of their FCPA compliance programs. Mr. Diamant has designed entire anti-bribery compliance programs, as well as guidance and payment approval materials, for Fortune 100 corporations. He also frequently conducts FCPA training for in-house counsel, corporate executives, and line employees. In addition to his work for clients, Mr. Diamant has held leadership roles in the FCPA compliance monitorships of Siemens AG and Statoil ASA.

Mr. Diamant also writes and speaks on issues of FCPA compliance and enforcement. Notable speaking engagements include “Corruption Crackdown: The FCPA and Recent Enforcement Trends” (Oslo, Norway; November 2009), hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers; and “Doing Business Internationally: Minimizing FCPA Risk Exposure” (McLean, Virginia; May 2008). Mr. Diamant’s recent publications on the FCPA include “Use of ‘Conscious Avoidance’ Doctrine in Frederic Bourke Conviction Expands Corporate Executives’ FCPA Exposure,” published in the July 22, 2009 issue of Securities Docket.

Mr. Diamant clerked for the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a 2003 magna cum laude graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif. At Georgetown, he served as Senior Articles & Notes Editor of the American Criminal Law Review and authored the article on the False Claims Act for the Seventeenth Survey of White Collar Crime, 39 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 491 (2002). In 2000, Mr. Diamant received his Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service magna cum laude from Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.