Justin Givens, a former federal prosecutor, is a member of the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Litigation Department. Justin is a skilled trial attorney with over a decade of experience leading sensitive, high-profile internal investigations. He represents corporations, financial institutions, and executives facing legal and reputational risk in criminal, regulatory, and civil proceedings.
Justin has extensive experience structuring large-scale corporate investigations and navigating the resolution process with both U.S. and foreign regulators. Justin has played a lead role in several high-profile global resolutions for corporations and banks seeking to resolve criminal and civil exposure in the United States and abroad, with a particular expertise in cross-border enforcement actions involving allegations of fraud and bribery. He also regularly advises on domestic and multi-jurisdictional compliance matters.
Justin has significant federal trial experience in cases involving healthcare fraud, the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute, bank fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Justin was a federal prosecutor with the Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. In that role, he investigated and prosecuted complex white collar fraud and tried multiple cases to verdict.
Experience
- Represented the former CEO of a leading contract research organization accused of securities fraud and wire fraud. After a month-long trial in federal court in the District of Maryland, the client was acquitted on six of eight counts.
- Represented the largest construction conglomerate in South America in response to allegations of FCPA violations related to the Brazilian Lava Jato scandal. Conducted an internal investigation and assisted in the representation of the client in negotiations with U.S., Brazilian, and Swiss regulators.
- Represented one of the largest private banks in Switzerland in connection with DOJ’s “Swiss Bank Program” to resolve the criminal liability of Swiss banks that assisted Americans in evading U.S. taxes. Managed a large scale, on-site internal investigation in Switzerland, resulting in a non-prosecution agreement for the bank and a penalty less than 2% of the Bank’s peak U.S. assets under management, representing less than half the penalty paid on average by banks in the Program.
- Represented a Kuwait-based, leading multinational and multi-billion-dollar logistics company, against a criminal indictment and civil False Claims Act charge in the largest government contracting case ever brought by the Department of Justice. Following an internal investigation and substantial pre-trial litigation, the case was resolved with a misdemeanor plea, resulting in the lifting of a seven-year government contracting suspension.
- Counseled a leading university in an internal investigation in connection with the indictment of an assistant basketball coach in the Southern District of New York for allegedly receiving cash bribes from athlete financial advisers in exchange for influence over university basketball players.
- Represented a federal agency in their lawsuit against a multinational bank to recover damages on behalf of the United States government arising out of investments in residential mortgage-backed securities, resulting in a bench trial finding the bank liable on all claims and a judgment of over $800 million.
- Healthcare
- International Investigations & Enforcement
- Anti-Bribery & Anti-Corruption (FCPA)
- Government Investigations & White Collar Litigation
- False Claims Act Investigations, Litigation and Enforcement
- Political Investigations Litigation and Enforcement
- Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering Counseling and Defense
- Financial Services Litigation
- Congressional Investigations
- Strategic Risk & Crisis Management
- California
- New York
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- Author, Practical Tips for Companies Following President Trump’s Pause on FCPA Enforcement, Subject to Inquiry, February 14, 2025
- Author, Major Shift on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Trump Signs EO Pausing Enforcement, Subject to Inquiry, February 11, 2025
- Author, The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act: Another Tool to Fight Foreign Corruption, Subject to Inquiry, January 30, 2024
- Author, DOJ Announces Safe Harbor Policy for Mergers and Acquisitions, Subject to Inquiry, October 6, 2023
- Author, "Lessons from the Benczkowski Memo," LA Daily Journal, November 29, 2018
- New York Law SchoolJD2008
- University of AlabamaBAPolitical Science and English2005
Selected for inclusion, “The 2024 Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation,” Lawdragon, 2024