Jason H. Smith is a senior associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of the White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group and focuses primarily on white collar defense, corporate compliance, and securities enforcement.  Mr. Smith has particular experience representing multinational corporate clients in government investigations, including before the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other regulatory and enforcement agencies.  He has advised clients on, and conducted internal investigations involving, alleged securities and accounting fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), and other anti-corruption laws.

Mr. Smith was selected by Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” in White Collar Defense for 2019 and 2020 and was one of only ten attorneys to be included on the “Rising Star” shortlist in White Collar Defense by IFLR in 2020.

Mr. Smith, who is fluent in Portuguese, has represented various clients before DOJ and the SEC in connection with Brazil’s Operations Lava Jato and Carne Fraca.  Mr. Smith is a member of the inaugural board of the Brazil-US “40 and Under” White Collar Lawyers Initiative, which consists of more than 120 lawyers across 50 law firms in various cities in the U.S. and Brazil and provides white collar lawyers with opportunities to gain insights and perspectives from leading white collar practitioners.

Mr. Smith’s representative matters include:

• Conducting an extensive anti-corruption internal investigation for Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras in connection with investigations by the SEC and DOJ in connection with Operation Lava Jato;
• Representing a global financial institution before the SEC stemming from alleged accounting fraud and securing a termination of that investigation;
• Representing a former CEO charged criminally under the FCPA and Travel Act in United States v. Carson for alleged payments to foreign officials in 30 countries;
• Assisting the compliance monitorship for Siemens AG in the then largest-ever FCPA resolution with the SEC and DOJ;
• Representing a major engineering company before the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency and securing a negotiated resolution of that investigation;
• Conducting an anti-corruption compliance program review for a major credit card issuer and bank holding company;
• Leading an internal investigation in Brazil for a global real estate developer and operator;
• Conducting anti-corruption due diligence on behalf of a multinational investment bank and financial services company in connection with the securitization of assets in Brazil; and
• Representing defendants in In re Toyota Motor Corporation Securities Litigation, a U.S. shareholder class action lawsuit alleging that Toyota failed to disclose safety and quality concerns related to recalls and reports of unintended vehicle acceleration.

Mr. Smith regularly speaks and writes on compliance, securities enforcement, anti-corruption, accounting fraud, and other financial crimes.  Mr. Smith’s notable speaking engagements, academic publications, and professional writings include the following:

• “SEC Enforcement Focus on COVID-19 Issues and Key Areas of Risk” (November 2020), Panelist, Gibson Dunn Webcast;
• “Brazil-US Information Sharing and Coordination in Cross-Border Corruption Cases” (June 2020), Moderator, Brazil-US 40 and Under White Collar Initiative Webcast;
• 2020 ABA Treatise, Practice Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Seventh Edition, General Offense Level: Base Offense Level and Specific Offense Characteristics;
• “Goodwill Under Scrutiny: How the SEC is Increasingly Targeting Goodwill Impairments and Ways to Reduce Risk” (October 23, 2019), Vol. 52 No. 18, The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation;
• “Navigating Cross-Border Investigations Involving Switzerland” (July 12, 2019), Global Investigations Review (with F. Joseph Warin and Susanna G. Schuemann);
• “How to Respond to the SEC’s Increased Focus on Valuations and Impairments” (June 24, 2019), Panelist, Practicing Law Institute Webcast;
• 2019 ABA Treatise, Practice Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Sixth Edition, Appeals in Guidelines and Sentencing;
• “FCPA Enforcement Against U.S. and Non-U.S. Companies,” 8 Mich. Bus. & Entrepreneurial L. Rev. 353 (2019) (with Michael S. Diamant and Christopher W.H. Sullivan); and
• “Sanctionable Practices at the World Bank: Interpretation and Enforcement,” 18 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 985 (2016) (with Michael S. Diamant and Christopher W.H. Sullivan).

Mr. Smith served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  As a law clerk, Mr. Smith assisted Judge Pfaelzer with managing her high-stakes securities class action cases and multi-district litigation docket.

Mr. Smith received his law degree cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2011.  Prior to law school, he worked at the U.S. Department of Energy under Secretary Samuel Bodman, where he managed participation of the Secretary in ministerial and bilateral meetings. He graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2007.