Corporate Compliance

The obvious direction the federal and state governments are pursuing with investigations stemming from what the government perceives as fraud, corrupt practices and regulatory violations, places a direct emphasis on taking a proactive approach to establish the difference between business decisions and wrongful acts.

Establishing the necessary compliance programs to ensure a client is adhering with regulatory provisions, which control the sales of goods and services, importing of goods, and management of conduct of employees and business partners overseas is imperative. This growing application of criminal and licensing sanctions can incur severe penalties for a corporation and/or individual. As a proactive measure, we assist our corporate clients by conducting internal investigations to ensure they are compliant with government regulations and to reduce incidents of criminal activities and wrongful conduct by employees. Our attorneys are former prosecutors and know what the governmental agencies require and review in the evaluation process as to whether a compliance program is deemed effective and tailored to the specific needs of the business.

Our attorneys are well-trusted counsel who advise and represent businesses, organizations, and individuals on a variety of issues at both the investigation and litigation stages. We work with clients to help them protect themselves from involvement in governmental enforcement matters. Should such an instance arise, our attorneys offer counsel and strategic planning during investigations, represent clients through negotiations, and defend clients in litigation when necessary.

Our clients include senior management of Fortune 500 companies, shareholders, executive officers of numerous other publicly traded companies and closely held businesses and officers of multinational companies. These clients span industries, such as international manufacturers, financial institutions, food manufacturers, the healthcare industry including hospitals, physicians, and non-institutional facilities, nonprofit businesses and community and government leaders. The comprehensive nature of our experience and practice enables our attorneys to provide solid, effective representation to this wide spectrum of clients, no matter the type of enforcement action involved or whether the client is the CEO of a major international company, a small business entrepreneur, or an individual accused of engaging in emerging computer crimes.

Our attorneys learn the client's business to understand the decisions the client makes and to understand the business purposes of these decisions, in order to tailor the representation and defense for our clients. 

Roetzel's corporate compliance attorneys have extensive experience in establishing protocols to ensure compliance, while also investigating and litigating all aspects of white collar matters. Our attorneys have represented clients in white collar related matters throughout the country in state and federal courts. Most importantly, our attorneys are trial lawyers who understand how the government will pursue a case through trial, what record to establish to preserve an appeal and how to relate with jurors. With first-hand experience from their previous law enforcement positions, our attorneys include a former senior trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, former Assistant United States Attorneys, former Ohio Attorney General, former state prosecutors, a Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel member, and a former SEC Enforcement Attorney.