Latham & Watkins LLP
Douglas Greenburg, Benjamin Naftalis, and Nathan Seltzer of Latham’s White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice look ahead to the enforcement trends facing businesses in 2021.
Since November 2020, white-collar defense lawyers have faced one question: will the Biden administration change US priorities when it comes to pursuing a range of economic crimes?
Generally, it takes a relatively long time for a new administration to have an impact on white-collar crime enforcement. White-collar matters often take a long time to process: cases that are not already being investigated can take months to appear on the radar, and the decentralised nature of the US system means that changes at the national level are often less consequential than appointments of US Attorneys at key offices throughout the country. In addition, the previous administration did not roll back on its enforcement pursuits to the extent many had anticipated. For example, aggressive FCPA enforcement continued through the last four years, in contrast to many expectations. All that said, we expect the next four years will bring rigorous white collar crime enforcement across a spectrum of white-collar cases.
