{{insights.date}}
{{insights.type}}
{{insights.contentTypeTag}}
Kathleen McGovern
Partner
Kathleen McGovern is a government investigations and white collar lawyer who advises clients regarding their most sensitive litigation, regulatory enforcement and compliance issues across a broad range of industries, including financial services, health and life sciences, telecommunications, consumer products and manufacturing, and sports and education. Kathleen leads global investigations and litigates matters involving allegations of securities and financial fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations and transnational corruption, healthcare fraud and other governmental investigations.
In addition to her private practice experience, Kathleen served in the public sector as a US federal and state prosecutor. During her time at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Kathleen served as the Senior Deputy Chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, Criminal Division, leading a team of more than 150 trial attorneys. She also led corporate fraud investigations and multiple high-profile white collar prosecutions resulting in the convictions of executives at publicly traded companies. She has tried over 50 federal and state cases to verdict, including against the executives at one of the largest healthcare finance companies in the US in a US$2.9 billion securities fraud scheme. Kathleen was also DOJ’s representative to the US delegation on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Working Group on Bribery and Corruption.
Prior to joining the firm, Kathleen served as a principal at a Big Four consulting firm where she led the Forensics Healthcare Practice (East). In that capacity, she led the team that provided guidance on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to the firm’s US clients, across all service lines. She also regularly advised clients spanning multiple industries, including telecommunications, manufacturing, health and life sciences, sports and education, regarding complex regulatory, risk and compliance issues, including conducting risk assessments, as well as developing antifraud and anticorruption programs.
Private Practice Experience
- Represented the former senior officer of a major financial institution in a recent bank failure regarding potential civil and criminal liability in investigations being conducted by multiple law enforcement and regulatory agencies, including the DOJ, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and New York State Department of Financial Services.
- Represented a global energy information company in the investigation of financial fraud committed by its senior employee.
- Represented a physician employed by major university health system in an investigation related to alleged billing irregularities.
- Provided guidance to major healthcare systems and academic medical centers to identify, secure and maximize COVID-19 funding sources, including ensuring compliance with reporting and regulatory requirements.
- Led team reviewing calculations, submissions for, and reporting of, funding received under the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund and other federal funding sources by a major health system following its merger with another, larger health system in order to determine appropriate consolidation, calculation and reporting post-merger.
- Conducted internal investigation for a multinational pharmaceutical company involving allegations of FCPA violations in operations across five countries and on four continents.
- Assisted a federal prosecuting agency in investigating an international network of telemedicine companies, its owners and executives, medical professionals and others who allegedly engaged in healthcare fraud and money laundering schemes that resulted in a US$1.2 billion loss.
- Engaged by a major US collegiate sports association to conduct a gender equity assessment in the Division I men’s and women’s basketball championships; and assist in investigations of potential violations of the association’s rules by member institutions, their employees and student-athletes.
- Led risk assessment of a global telecommunications company’s anti-corruption program and assisted in the remediation of its program following its resolution with the SEC regarding FCPA violations; conducted corruption risk assessments across the company’s worldwide operations.
- Conducted risk assessment for a global chemical company, including targeted FCPA audit and training.
- Assisted a global conglomerate in reporting of its foreign investments according to mandatory federal requirements by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.
- Led joint investigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into whether a Fortune 10 global corporation’s senior executives misled investors regarding the valuation of its credit default swaps portfolio.
- Led investigations involving the manipulation by leading financial institutions of LIBOR and the foreign currency exchange (FX) spot market, resulting in parent-level guilty pleas by five major financial institutions.
- Prosecuted individuals and corporate entities for FCPA and other bribery-related violations, including obtaining corporate guilty pleas that clarified law on agency, instrumentality and governmental control.
- Secured conviction after jury trial of former executives of a financial services company in a US$200 million securities fraud scheme.
- Established the Healthcare Fraud Corporate Strike Force, oversaw the strike force operations in over 10 cities and developed the HCF data analytics team.
- Conducted parallel investigations with DOJ’s Civil Division regarding False Claims Act allegations of healthcare fraud by corporate entities and individuals.
Education
- St. John’s University School of Law, J.D.
- St. John's University, B.S., Accounting
Admissions
- Connecticut
- New York
- Admission pending in the District of Columbia practice; directly supervised by principals of the firm admitted in the District of Columbia
Courts
- U.S. Dist. Ct., E. Dist. of New York
Memberships & Affiliations
- Member, Board of Advisors, St. John’s University Tobin College of Business
- Member, Steering Committee, Alumnae Leadership Council, St. John’s University School of Law
- Member, Monitor/Receiver Subcommittee, Women’s White Collar Defense Association
- Adjunct Professor, White Collar Crime, Georgetown University Law Center, 2015-2023
- Contributing author, “Expert Analysis: How US Companies Can Wield the New Foreign Bribery Law,” Law360, January 2024.
- Co-author, “Attorney Playbook for Women’s College Sports Is Changing,” Law360, June 2023 (subscription required).