Samuel G. Williamson

• Currently representing Transpire Bio Inc. in defending against allegations related to theft of trade secrets; thist case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• Currently advising Immunity Bio/ NantCell/ Altor in prosecuting claims relating to the theft of biotech trade secrets; this case was proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, but by consent of the parties is now being heard in arbitration
• Currently advising Black Rifle Coffee in connection with litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York related to securities claims arising from the exercise of BRC warrants following a “de-SPAC” transaction
• Has advised numerous companies, including Florida’s largest company and its subsidiaries on litigation in Florida federal and state courts
• Represented I-Mab in litigation regarding ownership of biotech intellectual property; this case proceeded in both arbitration and before the Delaware Court of Chancery
• Advised numerous companies of varying size, both publicly traded and privately held, in connection with FCPA-related internal investigations and government enforcement actions involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC, and multiple foreign enforcement agencies. These matters have involved issues in a variety of countries in Asia, West Africa, South and Central America, and Europe. In particular, Sam has advised numerous companies on resolving investigations by the DOJ and SEC, and has obtained full declination of prosecution decisions from both agencies for multiple clients.
• Advised numerous publicly-traded companies’ boards of directors, audit committees, and special committees of the board, with regard to the conduct of internal reviews of securities disclosure and accounting concerns and other compliance, enforcement or regulatory matters
• Represented U.S.-listed entities and their Audit/ Special Committees in private plaintiff securities litigation in U.S. federal courts
• Represented U.S. and Chinese companies in connection with private plaintiff and U.S. government antitrust litigation and investigations, and provided advice on dealing with Chinese government antitrust investigations and enforcement actions
• Represented senior executives of financial institutions with regard to investigations by the U.S. SEC and DOJ, with particular focus on issues concerning compliance with accounting and disclosure obligations under the U.S. securities laws
• Advised leading Multi-National Corporations regarding Economic Espionage investigations and allegations
• Represented a leading Chinese sporting goods conglomerate in intellectual property rights-related litigation against a U.S. competitor in both US Federal Court and in connection with PRC Court litigation
• Led an internal investigation into allegations of bribery regarding a U.S. company’s operations in West Africa; following the investigation, the allegations were retracted by the parties who had initially raised them
• Advised numerous senior executives and independent directors in connection with U.S. and foreign corruption inquiries and corporate internal investigations
• Represented multiple executives in connection with DOJ criminal price-fixing inquiries
• Represented companies and individuals in connection with internal investigations and U.S. government criminal and civil procurement fraud enforcement actions
• Represented senior executives in connection with civil and criminal health care fraud investigations
• Lead an internal investigation and providing advice in connection with criminal trade secrets and economic espionage issues.
• Advised other senior executives or officials in connection with sensitive issues involving government investigations or enforcement actions.

GOVERNMENT SERVICE

Sam spent nearly six years with the U.S. Department of Justice. His work as a federal prosecutor was split nearly equally between service in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville).

In New York, Sam was a member of the International Narcotics Trafficking Unit, where he prosecuted large international money-laundering and narcotics organizations. In the course of this work, Sam worked with law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, among others. In addition, Sam prosecuted a wide variety of other types of crimes including bank, wire, mail, and tax fraud.

In Nashville, Sam was the deputy chief of the office’s Criminal Division, where he supervised a team of as many as ten attorneys. This group was responsible for the prosecution of the majority of federal white collar criminal cases occurring in the district, including securities, bank, mail, wire, health care, environmental, and bankruptcy fraud. The team’s other matters included complicated computer intrusion cases and public corruption matters.

In both offices, Sam tried a number of federal jury trials and has addressed federal juries on dozens of occasions. The subject matters involved in these trials included many complex “white collar” matters, including criminal violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, environmental fraud, health care fraud, obstruction of justice, computer-related crimes, fraud in government subsidy programs, and public corruption. He also appeared in numerous legal and evidentiary hearings and represented the United States as lead counsel before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fifth and Sixth Circuits.

While working in Tennessee, Sam was a repeat guest lecturer at Vanderbilt Law School on issues involving corporate compliance and criminal obstruction of justice. He has also been a guest lecturer at George Washington University Law School on criminal procedure and sentencing.

In 2010, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, Sam traveled to Serbia, where he spoke to judges and prosecutors about corporate criminal liability as part of DOJ-sponsored training on these issues.

Prior to attending law school, Sam was an active duty infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps, where he attained the rank of Captain and served as an infantry company commander. He was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve after being promoted to the rank of Major, and deployed to Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Mali in the course of his reserve activities. During his time in the military, Sam achieved the second-highest possible score in oral Chinese on the Defense Language Proficiency Test.

• Antitrust & Competition
• Artificial Intelligence
• Crisis Law & Strategy Group
• Data Privacy & Security
• Investigations, Government Enforcement & White Collar Criminal Defense Practice
• Securities Litigation
• Transnational Litigation
• Commodities and Derivatives

• Harvard Law School
  (J.D., 2000, cum laude)
  
• National University of Singapore
  (1993-1994, Fulbright Scholar in Military History)
  
• Duke University
  (A.B., History, 1993, magna cum laude)
  • Phi Beta Kappa

• The State Bar of Florida 
• The State Bar of New York
• The State Bar of Tennessee (inactive)
• The District of Columbia Bar
• United States District Courts
  • District of Columbia
  • Southern District of New York
  • Southern District of Florida

• Mandarin
• Japanese

• Kirkland & Ellis:
  • Partner, 2008-2015
    
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and the Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville):
  
  • Assistant United States Attorney, 2002-2008
    
• Law Clerk to the Hon. Judge Gilbert S. Merritt:
  • United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2000-2001
    
• United States Marine Corps, Infantry Officer:
  • Active Duty (highest rank, Captain), 1993-1997
  • Reserve Duty (highest rank, Major), 1997-2008

• Ranked by Legal 500 USA, Dispute Resolution: Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense: Corporates, Advice to Individuals “Recommended Lawyers”, 2023-2024
• Ranked by Who's Who Legal for Investigations, 2018-2019
• Distinguished Service Award – FCPA Category
  – Main Justice, 2013

• “Feds to Corporate America: ‘The Cops are Coming’”, Business Crimes Bulletin, 2010.
• “New Bumps and Tolls Along the Road to FCPA Settlements,” Business Crimes Bulletin, 2009.