Robert C. Blume is a partner in the Denver and Washington, D.C. offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  His practice focuses on business crimes, investigations, and complex civil litigation.  Mr. Blume spent more than seven years as a federal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice and earned four Special Achievement Awards from the Attorney General. 

Mr. Blume has extensive trial experience in local, state, and federal court and also represents corporations and executives before federal grand juries, the Department of Justice, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  In addition to providing expertise in complex civil cases and criminal defense, Mr. Blume conducts internal investigations for Audit Committees, Boards of Directors, and management in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, healthcare, agricultural products, insurance, engineering, and energy.  He has represented clients faced with securities enforcement actions, environmental matters (criminal and civil), class actions, and export control issues.  Mr. Blume recently argued before the Fifth Circuit and defeated allegations brought against a client by an individual whistleblower alleging violations of the False Claims Act. 

Mr. Blume has developed a particular expertise in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and has conducted FCPA investigations relating to businesses in more than a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle-East, Central America, and South America.  During these investigations, Mr. Blume regularly advises on company practices, internal compliance programs, disclosure issues, human resource concerns, and remedial measures for improving compliance.  In addition, Mr. Blume defends companies and individuals accused of FCPA violations by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  He also is leading an international team of attorneys assisting the first, non-US Compliance Monitor in connection with the largest FCPA settlement ever. 

Calling upon his FCPA expertise, Mr. Blume frequently trains executives, senior sales personnel, and foreign agents on FCPA policy and compliance, writes articles on the FCPA, and lectures on the topic. 

Mr. Blume has advised clients and industry groups on the ethics of internal investigations, especially focusing on the respective roles of a corporation’s Internal Audit and Legal Departments during these investigations.  For many clients, Mr. Blume has restructured and drafted corporate compliance manuals, corporate procedures, document management programs, and corporate Codes of Conduct. 

Before joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Mr. Blume served with distinction as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.  Assigned to the Homicide/Major Crimes Section, Mr. Blume investigated and prosecuted more than fifteen homicide trials and twenty drug and violent crime trials in local and federal courts.  Mr. Blume also spent four years with the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, where he investigated and tried a number of organized crime and white collar cases involving RICO, mail and wire fraud, securities fraud, credit card fraud, insurance fraud, computer security breaches, FCPA violations, obstruction of justice, money laundering, and conspiracy.

Mr. Blume graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an Associate Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and a member of the Georgetown Criminal Justice Clinic.  Mr. Blume received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Brown University.  He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of Colorado. 

Mr. Blume recently served as the National Co-Chair of the Corporate Criminal Liability Subcommittee of the White Collar Crime Section of the American Bar Association.