Steve Fagell

Public and private companies, boards, and senior executives call Steve Fagell with their most difficult government enforcement matters and internal investigations. A former senior official in the U.S. Department of Justice, Steve co-chairs the firmâs White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group. He represents clients in complex criminal and civil regulatory matters involving export controls and sanctions, fraud, the FCPA, and other areas of U.S. law. He also frequently advises public company boards on corporate governance and enterprise risk.

Rather than negotiate the best possible settlement, Steve’s approach is to persuade the government not to bring a case at all. Since returning to Covington in 2010 after serving in DOJâs Criminal Division, he has obtained more than 20 closures of investigations without any enforcement action, including five in a single year. Chambers USA ranks Steve in Band 1 for White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations in Washington, D.C., and nationally for FCPA matters. He is a two-time Law360 White Collar MVP, and, earlier in his career, Global Investigations Review named him the leading investigations lawyer in the United States under the age of 45.

Clients have described Steve in leading legal publications as “the ultimate regulator whisperer” and “the role model of the highly strategic,” saying that he “doesn’t give a cookie cutter approach” and “will push the envelope.” As one client put it: “Steve is a rare outside lawyer I can call with any question.”

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DOJ White Collar Enforcement Six Months into the Trump Administration

By Steve Fagell, Nancy Kestenbaum, Aaron Lewis, Stephen Anthony, Lanny Breuer, Eric Carlson, Christopher Denig, Matthew Dunn, Mark Finucane, Sarah Franklin, Jim Garland, Benjamin Haley, Robert Henrici, Geoffrey Hobart, Gerald Hodgkins, Helen Hwang, Robert Kelner, Peter Koski, Amanda Kramer, Kristin Mace, Ashley Nyquist, Matthew O'Connor, Mona Patel, Patrick M. Phelan, Dana Remus, Don Ridings, Krysten Rosen Moller, Eric Sandberg-Zakian, Jennifer Saperstein, Daniel Shallman, W. Douglas Sprague, Daniel Suleiman, Addison Thompson, Veronica Yepez, Bruce Baird, Frederic Levy, Jean Veta, Alan Vinegrad, Ping An, Matthew Benov, Sarah Bishop, Jason P. Criss, Barbara Hoffman, Noam Kutler, Teresa Park, Molly Doggett, Dan Grant, Ian Redfearn, Joshua Roselman & Leah Saris on August 15, 2025

Posted in Anti-Corruption/FCPA, Life Sciences & Digital Health, Trade Controls, White Collar

Now that the Trump Administration has cleared the six-month mark, its approach to white collar enforcement is starting to come into focus through multiple policy announcements and an emerging track record. After a flurry of policy announcements from Attorney General Pam Bondi in the early weeks of the new administration…

DOJ Provides Further Voluntary Disclosure Incentives, This Time Linked to M&A Transactions, and Signals Other Areas of Focus

By Steve Fagell, Don Ridings, Jennifer Saperstein, Aaron Lewis, Thomas Barnett, Anne Lee, E. Kate Patchen, Benjamin Haley, Adam Studner, Ashley Nyquist & Kyle W. Chow on October 18, 2023

Posted in Antitrust, Policy and Legislation

October 17, 2023, Covington Alert

What You Need to Know

On October 4, 2023, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco provided new and expanded policy guidance on corporate criminal enforcement, announcing a new Mergers and Acquisitions Safe Harbor Policy (“Safe Harbor Policy”).
The Safe Harbor Policy provides acquiring companies an opportunity to avoid criminal charges if they voluntarily self-disclose misconduct at acquired companies within six months of a merger or acquisition (“M&A”), fully cooperate in any DOJ investigation, engage in timely and appropriate remediation within one year of the transaction closing date, and pay restitution or disgorgement, as appropriate.
The Safe Harbor Policy—which we expect will be formalized in writing and incorporated into the Justice Manual—appears to draw heavily on policies and guidance from the Criminal Division dating back to 2008, but that will now be formalized, clarified, and applied across the Department, with different parts of the Department “tailor[ing] its application . . . to fit their specific enforcement regime.”
As with all of the Department’s recent policy announcements concerning the benefits of voluntary disclosure, significant questions remain. We discuss some of those below, and we will be watching to see how DOJ applies the Safe Harbor Policy in practice. At a minimum, however, companies should ensure that their pre- and post-closing diligence and integration processes are designed to quickly identify legacy or ongoing misconduct at acquired companies so that they may have an opportunity to consider the expected benefits and burdens associated with a voluntary disclosure under the Safe Harbor Policy.
In addition to announcing the Safe Harbor Policy, Deputy Attorney General Monaco noted a “dramatic” expansion in national security enforcement, new enforcement tools that the Department is deploying, continued focus on incentivizing companies to seek compensation clawbacks from individual wrongdoers, and even more policy changes to come. Deputy Attorney General Monaco’s announcement follows recent shifts in enforcement remedies sought by the Department, such as divestiture in certain criminal antitrust cases—an unprecedented remedial measure.