George Terwilliger has earned distinction as one of the nation’s premier lawyers. That status is attested by a long history of clients seeking his counsel in their most challenging matters. Recently, he has successfully defended a member of congress and subsequently a sitting governor facing intense federal investigations. His corporate investigation matters include those arising from diesel vehicle emissions, pharmaceutical opioids and tech industry competition. He also was counsel in a virtual federal bench trial of a commercial transactional dispute, as well as in arguing constitutional issues in a state supreme court. His history includes representing major national and international banks, energy and manufacturing companies in both litigation and investigations in the United States and abroad.
George is a member of the firm’s nationally recognized Government Investigations and White Collar practice and leads the firm’s Strategic Response and Crisis Management practice group. Following his fifteen years of public service in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he began as a law clerk and concluded as Acting Attorney General, George has provided counsel in government and internal investigations.
Clients have included the nation’s and the world’s largest corporations, including major financial institutions, energy companies, public institutions as well as leading business and government officials, including members of the U.S. Senate and House as well as cabinet officials. He has also represented lawyers and corporate legal departments in investigations. As a result of both his private sector work and government positions, George is called upon to provide counsel as well as commentary to government officials, Congress and private organizations on national security, homeland defense, terrorism, and other public policy and legal issues. George’s work regularly involves providing counsel in the executive suites and boardrooms of major corporations.
In private practice for international law firms, George has represented national and international financial, energy, telecommunications, industrial and healthcare companies. He is a recognized expert in leading credible corporate internal investigations and his experience designing and executing both targeted and global legal compliance reviews has involved work in more than 60 countries around the globe. George is very experienced with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and regularly provides counsel to companies addressing FCPA issues. No stranger to high stakes litigation and crisis events, George helped lead the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida vote recount, served as special outside counsel to a Senate committee investigating vote fraud allegations, served as counsel to an executive commission on gambling, and has represented many clients in politically charged election law and similar cases. He has guided corporations and individual through high stakes matters of intense public interest. He represented an incumbent president in First Amendment litigation concerning the right to have an inaugural prayer said in a public ceremony.
At the U.S. Department of Justice, George served for 10 years as a frontline federal prosecutor, handling hundreds of investigations, trials and appeals, including in white collar and national security cases. President Ronald Reagan appointed him as a U.S. attorney, and he next served as the deputy attorney general and as acting attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration. As Deputy Attorney General, George ran the Justice Department’s operations, overseeing all the nation’s federal prosecutors, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. He also had leadership responsibility in several national and international crises, including a hostage-taking in a federal prison and the federal law enforcement response to domestic unrest in Los Angeles. In several instances, he personally handled negotiations of high-profile criminal and civil matters in the United States and abroad.
- Anti-Bribery & Anti-Corruption (FCPA)
- Antitrust & Trade Regulation
- Antitrust Counseling & Compliance
- Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering Counseling and Defense
- Campaign Finance Investigations and Enforcement
- Commercial Litigation
- Congressional Investigations
- Educational Institutions Investigations
- Government Contract Investigations and Enforcement
- Government Investigations & White Collar Litigation
- Law Enforcement Policy and Practice Reviews
- Political Investigations Litigation and Enforcement
- Strategic Risk & Crisis Management
- District of Columbia
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Tax Court
- Moderator, Government Regulatory and Enforcement Outlook 2022, March 16 & 17, 2022
- Panelist, "Corporate Criminal Liability and Compliance", Symposium on the Law and Economics of Criminal Justice Reform, October 22, 2018
- Speaker, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, The Federalist Society, January 28, 2018
- Speaker, Compliance in the Real World — A Practical Roundup of Today’s Top Issues, October 25, 2017
- Speaker, Supreme Court Preview: What Is in Store for October Term 2016?, The Federalist Society, September 27, 2016
- Moderator, "Keynote Panel: Healthcare Litigation Trends: The Government Perspective on Enforcement, Administrative Actions and Sanctions", Annual Healthcare Litigation Conference, May 6, 2015
- Moderator, "Enforcement Risk Management: Looking Around the Corner Beyond Regulatory Inspections and Audits", Institute for Energy Law’s 66th Annual Oil and Gas Conference, The Center for American and International Law, February 20, 2015
- Panelist, Defining Regulatory Crimes, Criminal Law and the Administrative State: Defining and Enforcing Regulatory Crimes Workshop, May 13, 2014
- Speaker, Annual National Policy Conference and Reception, Republican National Lawyers Association, March 21, 2014
- Speaker, Real Sector Economy and the Internet – Digital Interconnection as an Issue for Competition Policy, Research Institute for Economic Order and Competition "FIW" International Competition Conference, March 7, 2014
- Speaker, Overcriminalization, Republican Attorneys General Association, February 23, 2014
- Speaker, FCPA Annual Conference, American Conference Institute, November 19, 2013
- Moderator, NSA Data Collection, Textualism and the Role of Judges, The Federalist Society's 2013 National Lawyers Convention, November 15, 2013
- Speaker, New Era of Aggressive Insider Trading Enforcement Panel (the STOCK ACT and Political Intelligence), Business Lawyers Institute, November 13, 2013
- Speaker, National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys Annual Conference, September 26, 2013
- Speaker, The Nuts and Bolts of Internal Corporate Investigations: How the Experts Do it, American Bar Association's 6th Annual National Institute on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, September 20, 2013
- Speaker, Criminal Law at the Federal Level, 1st Annual Executive Branch Review Conference, June 14, 2013
- Speaker, 2nd Annual University of Houston Ethics and Compliance Symposium, June 6, 2013
- Speaker, The Role of the Attorney General Throughout History, NPR, May 29, 2013
- Antioch School of LawJD1978
- Seton Hall UniversityBA1973
Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Criminal Defense: White Collar, Washington, D.C., Woodward/White, Inc., 2016-2024
Selected for inclusion in “Legal 500 United States,” Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense, 2020-2023
Named to “Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers,” Criminal Defense: White Collar, Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2016-2020, 2022, 2023
Selected for inclusion in Who’s Who Legal, Investigations: Lawyers, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Selected for inclusion in Who’s Who in American Law, Marquis Who’s Who, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2019
Named a “Local Litigation Star,” White Collar Crime, Benchmark Litigation, 2018
Selected for inclusion as a “Leading Lawyer,” Corporate Investigations And White-Collar Criminal Defense, Washington, D.C., Legal 500 US, 2016-2017
Named a “Litigation Trailblazer,” The National Law Journal, 2016
Selected for inclusion in America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, FCPA, Nationwide, Chambers USA, 2014-2016
Selected for inclusion in America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, FCPA, USA, Chambers Global, 2015
AV Preeminent Rated, Martindale-Hubbell
- Author, New DOJ Guidance on Corporate Criminal Enforcement, Subject to Inquiry, September 16, 2022
- Author, Corporate Campaign Contributions vs. Independent Expenditures: 6th Circuit Explains the Difference, Subject to Inquiry, September 29, 2021
- Author, Due to COVID-19, Most Pennsylvania Businesses Ordered to Cease Operations, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, March 20, 2020
- Author, Key Lessons for Colleges and Universities From Operation Varsity Blues, Subject to Inquiry, March 22, 2019
- Author, Congressional Investigations: Beyond Sensational Headlines — Incoming House Leaders Announce Broad Investigative Priorities Targeting Business Community, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, December 19, 2018
- Author, Yates Memo Revised – DOJ Steps Back From All-or-Nothing Approach to Corporate Cooperation Credit, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, December 5, 2018
- Author, Expansion of FCPA “Pilot Program” is Good for Companies, but Heed the Fine Print, Subject to Inquiry, December 4, 2017
- Author, New Rules for Cleared Contractors Starting Nov. 30, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, November 29, 2016
- Author, "A Crisis Signals Risk, But Also Opportunity", The National Law Journal, July 18, 2016
- Author, "Time to Brush Up on Campaign Finance Laws", National Law Journal , April 4, 2016
- Co-author, "The Increasing Risk Of Criminal Prosecution For Food Cos.", Law360, January 22, 2016
- Author, Addressing Adulterated Food Risk, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, January 19, 2016
- Author, "Debate Intensifies Over Prosecutor Misconduct", The National Law Journal, December 14, 2015
- Author, A New FCPA Policy May Be Coming, but Questions Remain, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, November 13, 2015
- Author, "Op-Ed: The Yates Memo’s Pitfalls", The National Law Journal, September 16, 2015
- Author, Unpacking the Yates Memo: What the “New” DOJ Policy Really Means, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, September 11, 2015
- Author, "Hasty Changes to Mandatory Sentencing Could Prove Unwise", The National Law Journal, August 31, 2015
- Author, "Defining a legitimate scope for the federalization of business crime", The Washington Times, July 15, 2015
- Author, "Valuable Insight from DOJ’s Criminal Division", The National Law Journal, May 18, 2015
- Author, "Bulk data yield key intelligence: Opposing view", USA Today, April 13, 2015
- Author, "Don’t condemn the whole lot: Opposing view", USA Today, July 9, 2014
- Author, "Businesses Should Brace for DOJ’s Assault", The National Law Journal, June 9, 2014
- Author, "FIRREA Misuse can Imperil Confidence in Banks", ABA Banking Journal, April 17, 2014
- Author, "Risk Management – Beware of the Enforcers", The National Law Journal, February 17, 2014
- Author, "Walking a Tightrope in White-Collar Investigations", The National Law Journal, September 23, 2013
- Author, "When It’s Legally Benign and DOJ Has Closed Its Case", The National Law Journal, June 24, 2013
- Author, "Uncertainty Over Agency Enforcement in Second Term", The National Law Journal, November 19, 2012