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Laura Perkins is a partner in Cadwalader’s Global Litigation Group and member of the firm’s global Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement practice.
Laura is a former senior official and prosecutor with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Her practice focuses on high-stakes government and internal investigations, crisis management, white collar criminal defense and cross border compliance counseling, risk assessments and due diligence, and national security and sanctions issues.
As a skilled investigator and trial lawyer, Laura assists corporations, boards of directors, audit committees and senior executives with sensitive internal investigations and proceedings before the DOJ, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other U.S. and international agencies, with a particular focus on FCPA/anti-corruption, financial fraud, sanctions violations, money laundering and healthcare fraud.
Prior to joining Cadwalader in 2024, Laura was a partner with another global law firm, where she co-chaired its global investigations, enforcement and compliance U.S. practice group, and served as co-managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Prior to re-entering private practice in 2017, Laura spent nearly 10 years at the DOJ, most recently serving as Assistant Chief of the FCPA Unit of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General.
While at the DOJ, Laura supervised, prosecuted and tried some of the largest individual and corporate FCPA cases in the U.S. and was involved in the development of the FCPA Pilot Program and the drafting of the FCPA Resource Guide. Laura also oversaw nearly a dozen independent compliance monitors and served as a U.S. Delegate to the OECD’s Working Group on Bribery.
In addition to FCPA cases, Laura successfully investigated and prosecuted complex financial fraud cases, healthcare fraud cases and money-laundering cases while at the DOJ. In her role as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, Laura advised DOJ leadership on white-collar criminal cases and policy matters and assisted with responding to Congressional inquiries and investigations.
Laura is consistently recognized for her leading work for clients. Chambers Global and Chambers USA has ranked her as one of the leading FCPA lawyers in the world every year since 2020. The Legal 500 has featured Laura as a top U.S. lawyer in its Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense category multiple times (2019 – 2021, 2024). In 2018, Global Investigations Review named Laura as one of the “Top 100 Women in Investigations.” She has also been recognized by Who's Who Legal Thought Leaders GIR- USA (2024).
As an officer on the International Bar Association’s Business Crimes Committee, Laura frequently lectures, writes and engages with the media on a wide array of trends and topics in investigations and regulatory enforcement. Recent highlights include:
Highlighted Lectures:
- Co-chair, GIR Live: Paris 2023, June 15, 2023
- Speaker, “Privatization of law enforcement: Are companies becoming the new prosecutors?” 25th Annual IBA Transnational Crime Conference, May 4, 2023
- Speaker, “Critical Issues for In-house Counsel Before and During FCPA Investigations,” PLI’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and International Anti-Corruption Developments Conference 2023, April 20, 2023
- Speaker, GIR Live: DC Spring 2023, March 23, 2023
- Reed’s All Things Investigations, Podcast, February 27, 2023
- “Kevin Abikoff and Laura Perkins on the FCPA & Anti-Bribery Fall 2022 Alert,” Hughes Hubbard and Reed’s All Things Investigations, Podcast, December 12, 2022
- Speaker, “The New Realities of Corporate and Individual Liability Risks: Defense Counsel Perspectives on the DOJ’s Enforcement Posture and the Path Ahead,” Panel, 39th Annual Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
- November 31, 2022
- “The Monaco Memo,” Hughes Hubbard and Reed’s All Things Investigations, Episode 12, Podcast, September 26, 2022
- “Anti-Corruption Issues in International Arbitration,” Hughes Hubbard and Reed’s All Things Investigations, Episode 7, Podcast, July 11, 2022
- Speaker, “Getting The Most Out of Your Compliance Program,” PLI’s The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and International Anti-Corruption Developments 2022 Conference, April 21, 2022
- Speaker, “Restitution Issues in High-Profile White-Collar Settlements,” ABA’s 36th National Institute on White Collar Crime Conference, October 28, 2021
- Moderator, “Ephemeral Communications Quandaries: How Industry is Updating Policies, Procedures and Monitoring-and What Can (and What Can’t) Yield Cooperation Credit,” ACI 37th International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, December 3, 2020
- Moderator, "Inside the TechnipFMC Settlement and Aftermath,” ACI’s Houston Forum on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, January 2020
- Speaker, "Defending Your Program to the Agencies: Practitioners Discuss Their Experiences Amid the Latest DOJ Guidance and Increased Global Enforcement," ACI’s Thirty-Sixth International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, December 2019
- Faculty member, "Third-Party Arrangements," Healthcare Compliance Certificate Program of Seton Hall Law School, Newark, NJ, June 14, 2019, October 18, 2019, October 23, 2020, October 2021
- "Laura Perkins on the Latest FCPA Enforcement Trends," The Compliance & Ethics Blog, Podcast, March 2019 Speaker, “The Grey Areas of Procurement, Sales & Marketing,” ACI’s Thirty-Fifth International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” November 2018
- Speaker, “Your Global Strategy in Face of Heightened Jurisdictional Risks, Increased International Collaboration and Accelerated Coordinated Prosecutions,” C5’s 7th Annual Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery Conference, October 2018
- "Laura Perkins on the Latest FCPA Enforcement Trends," The Compliance & Ethics Blog, Podcast, March 2019 Speaker, “The Grey Areas of Procurement, Sales & Marketing,” ACI’s Thirty-Fifth International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” November 2018
- Speaker, “Your Global Strategy in Face of Heightened Jurisdictional Risks, Increased International Collaboration and Accelerated Coordinated Prosecutions,” C5’s 7th Annual Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery Conference, October 2018
- Moderator, Stirring the PEP's Nest: Applying Global Magnitsky Sanctions to Prevent Abuse and Corruption,"
- Compliance Week Sanctions Risk Management Conference, October 2018
- "FCPA Compliance Report- Laura Perkins on the Hoskins Decision," Episode 398, Podcast, September 2018 “Investigations and Monitorships: Practitioner Panel," UC Berkeley Law Compliance Academy, July 2018
- Speaker, “Former US Prosecutor Discusses New FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy and Recent Cases Involving China,” ACI’s China Forum on Anti-Corruption, June 2018
- Speaker, “Criminal Enforcement and Prosecution Trends in Relevant Jurisdictions (Topics, Industries, Crimes),” American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section- WisteV Conference on Global Corporate Criminal Liability and International Internal Investigations, May 2018
- Moderator, "Challenges Maintaining Attorney-Client Privilege in Anti-Corruption Enforcement Actions," The George Washington University Law School, Emerging Issues in FCPA Enforcement Conference, March 2018
- Co-Chair, ACI's 12th Houston Forum on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, January 2018
- Speaker, "Taking Stock of FCPA Enforcement Priorities One Year into the New U.S. Administration," ACI's 12th Houston Forum on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, January 2018
Highlighted Publications
- Co-author, with Michael DeBernardis and Katherine Taylor, “Suspect Corrupt Payments? How to Navigate a Potential Corporate Crisis,” The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, p.171-176 (September 2024)
- Co-author, with Kevin Abikoff, Jan Dunin-Wasowicz and Laura Vittet-Adamson, "Compliance and International Arbitration: Once Separate, Now Becoming Inextricably Linked," Corporate Compliance Insights (May 2022) Co-Author, with Kevin Abikoff, Michael A. DeBernardis, and Christine Kang, "Multilateral Development Bank Monitorships," GIR Guide to Monitorships, 3rd Edition, p.353-368 (April 2022)
- Co-author, with Kevin Abikoff, "The Fine Line Between 'Cutting Red Tape' and Throwing Out the Play Book," Corporate Counsel (April 2020)
- Co-author, with Marie-Agnès Nicolas, “France Issues Inaugural Convention Judiciaire d’Intérêt Publica,” Revue Internationale De La Compliance Et De L’Ḗthique Des Affaires (International Review of Compliance and Business Ethics) (March 2018)
Quotes and Interviews:
- Quoted in “Executives Face Perils When Confessing to DOJ as Companies Gain,” Bloomberg Law, April 20, 2023 Quoted in "ComEd Exec's Trial A Test Of Prosecutors' Bribery Strategy,' Law360, March 13, 2023
- Quoted in "DOJ Puts Corporate America on Notice," Commercial Dispute Resolution, July 2, 2022
- Quoted in "DOJ anti-bribery settlements hit new high in 2020," Reuters Legal, February 24, 2021
- Quoted in "Corruption, compliance and post-Covid outlook," Commercial Dispute Resolution, February 24, 2021 "Quoted in "ECCP Refinements Encourage Companies to Make Compliance a Positive Feedback Loop," The Anti-Corruption Report, June 24, 2020
- Quoted in "A Close Look at the New ECCP's Commentary on Compliance," The Anti-Corruption Report, May 29, 2019
- Quoted in "Analyzing the DOJ's New Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs," The Anti-Corruption Report, May 15, 2019
- Quoted in "Cognizant Case Offers GCs Warning On Shirking FCPA," Law360, February 26, 2019
- Quoted in "When Is an Individual 'Substantially' Involved in a Crime?" The Anti-Corruption Report, February 6, 2019
- Quoted in "Changes to Justice Manual on Individual Prosecutions Moderate but Preserve the Yates Memo," The Anti- Corruption Report, January 23, 2019
- Quoted in "Justice Limps Along As Civil Matters Get Shelved During Shutdown," Bloomberg
- Quoted in "Former Hong Kong Minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping Convicted in US Court on 7 of 8 Counts in Bribery and Money-Laundering Case," South China Morning Post, December 6, 2018
- "New Anti-Bribery Alert Shows Companies How to Avoid FCPA Land Mines," Corporate Counsel, Interview, November 28, 2018
- Quoted in "'Business Friendly' Monitorship Memo Gives Leverage to Companies," Global Investigations Review Just Anti-Corruption publication, October 23, 2018
- Quoted in “Life As an FCPA Recidivist: How Stryker’s Seemingly Minor Violations Became a Major Problem,” The Anti- Corruption Report, October 18, 2018
- Quoted in “France Smacks Down Second-Largest Bank to Become Key Bribery Cop,” Bloomberg News, June 5, 2018 “Hughes Hubbard & Reed Partner Laura Perkins on FCPA Enforcement Under Trump,” Corporate Crime Reporter, Interview, March 31, 2018
