Lauren R. Randell

Lauren Randell is a white collar litigator whose international experience provides her individual and corporate clients with valuable insights into the most high-stakes civil and criminal enforcement issues, both before and after an enforcement case begins, from compliance counseling to internal investigations to enforcement defense.  

Her practice focuses on white collar matters that impact the global C-suite, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), criminal antitrust, fraud, and securities enforcement defense, as well as emerging issues involving digital assets and cryptocurrency-related firms.  A Partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Buckley LLP, Ms. Randell has been involved in numerous precedent-setting cases against the government.

Recent work includes representing corporations and individuals under investigation by federal and state government agencies and in related parallel litigation, including:

• Universal Entertainment Corp., a large Japanese gaming manufacturer, and its subsidiary, Aruze USA, Inc., in FCPA-related litigation brought by Wynn Resorts Ltd., as well as in related parallel matters. The case involved one of the first examples of a private party using allegations of FCPA violations as an affirmative weapon to gain an upper hand in an unrelated contract dispute.  After six years of litigation – during which the parties produced millions of documents, argued more than a dozen appeals and scores of motions, and took nearly 100 depositions – Wynn Resorts agreed to pay $2.6 billion to our clients just a month before trial
   
• Executives in antitrust investigations into the auto parts and car carrier shipping industry
   
• A senior derivatives trader in the DOJ’s investigation of LIBOR-setting at major global banks
   
• Large regional construction company in an investigation and resolution with several federal and state agencies regarding M/W/DBE compliance
   
• Noble Corp.’s former CEO/CFO, Mark Jackson, in the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuit against him over alleged bribery in Nigeria related to oil and gas drilling rigs. Unlike almost all SEC enforcement actions in the FCPA space, Mr. Jackson fought the SEC’s allegations against him. The case was the only contested litigation to arise out of the SEC and Department of Justice's (DOJ) broad FCPA investigation into oil and gas drillers in Nigeria, and would have been the first SEC trial on FCPA claims in 30 years. Ms. Randell and Buckley put the SEC to the test through extensive litigation in Houston federal court, including challenges to what appear to have been the SEC’s first expert witnesses ever in FCPA cases. The case ultimately settled on the eve of trial with Mr. Jackson paying no money to the SEC, accepting no bar to his future employment, and neither admitting nor denying a simple controlling person claim unrelated to bribery
   
• Ongoing representation of executives at global corporations in FCPA investigations by the DOJ
   
• The owner and General Manager of a military arms company in the Africa Sting/Shot Show case, the largest FCPA criminal enforcement proceeding ever brought by the DOJ against individuals. Ms. Randell second chaired the trial team for John Mushriqui in a four-month trial ending in a hung jury, which ultimately led to the dismissal of all charges against him by the DOJ
   
• The former Senior Vice President and Controller of Fannie Mae in parallel DOJ and SEC investigations and in related shareholder litigation. The matter involved alleged accounting errors reported in 2004 by the company’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which resulted in a $6 billion restatement. Summary judgment and dismissal were granted in the securities fraud class action after full discovery over eight years completely exonerating our client of the highly-publicized allegations

Recent work with companies prior to enforcement litigation includes:

• Internal investigation into potential FCPA issues in Asia.
   
• Compliance counseling regarding anti-bribery and corruption issues in several countries
   
• Advising digital assets and cryptocurrency-related companies on enforcement risks and interactions with U.S. authorities

Prior to joining Buckley, Ms. Randell practiced at Mayer Brown, where she was part of the trial team that secured an acquittal for a senior executive of W.R. Grace in one of the largest criminal environmental prosecutions ever brought by the DOJ. Ms. Randell received her J.D. and B.S. from Yale University.  Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable Franklin S. Van Antwerpen of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.