Hunton & Williams partner Laura Colombell Marshall comes from a law enforcement family.
Laura Colombell Marshall
Hunton & Williams
“I’m the daughter of an FBI agent,” Marshall told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “My grandfather was a New Haven police officer. When I went to law school, I knew I wanted to be in public service. And I had hoped that I would get an opportunity to be a federal prosecutor. My grandfather came to this country from Germany. We had a short but significant tradition in public service in this country.”
“My dad is in fact a lawyer. He joined the FBI at a time when you were either a lawyer or an accountant. His younger brother was an accountant and became a career FBI agent as well.”
“The importance of being in law enforcement was instilled in me at an early age. My husband is also in law enforcement as well.”
Marshall spent fifteen years as a federal prosecutor before joining Hunton & Williams’ white collar criminal defense practice in 2013.
“When I’m asked to come in and do an internal investigation — and I was doing one this week — my marching orders from my clients are — we want to get to the truth, we want to get to the bottom of this and we want an independent investigation,” Marshall said. “When I get that task, it’s very natural for me to do an investigation, develop evidence, identify what the key issues are. I feel very comfortable doing that. I tell my clients that this is the kind of thing that I enjoy the most. It’s not necessarily a new challenge to me. These are skills that I have honed over a long period of time. I have been fortunate enough to work with companies that value that kind of tailored and independent investigation. And they seem to understand that that is what the Department of Justice is looking for.”
“When you start these investigations for companies, you never know exactly what you are going to find. I always make sure at the outset that I have the directive to conduct an independent and thorough investigation. Ultimately, if you need to make a disclosure, you need to have the credibility behind the work that you have done in order for the government to even consider relying on the findings that you have reached. It goes a long way towards cooperation and how the government views the company.”
We are hearing that companies are increasingly reluctant to self-report to the government and they might as well roll the dice.
“There is that general feeling, although recently we are seeing statements and signaling from the Department that they are receptive to self-reporting and that they are going to be giving significant weight to that in the course of making a decision.”
“If I have a client with a strong compliance program, more times than not, somebody was in that company who elevated the concern that caused me even to conduct an investigation. They felt compelled because of the culture of that company to report it. And that is a positive fact that needs to be conveyed to the government. Yes, we have identified this issue. But the reason we have identified it is because we have compliance policies, procedures and controls in place and we also have created a culture so that this employee knew to report it to leadership. That is what sparked the investigation.”
“When you have that kind of a situation, that is a compelling presentation to make to the government.”
There are very few women partners in the white collar field. Why is that?
“I’m part of the American Bar Association’s Women in White Collar Subcommittee. In general, there are few women in the big defense firms, but fewer in the white collar practices at those firms.”
“It may be a product of not as many women leaving U.S. Attorneys offices. Many white collar attorneys do come from government service. But there are plenty of women who have developed a white collar expertise exclusively in the private sector. I don’t know the answer. But as someone who went to the ABA white collar crime events in the mid-1990s and having just attended the conference we had in San Diego this past March, the number of women attending that conference has increased substantially. I was very encouraged to see the number of young women associates who are focusing on this area and building a practice in white collar.”
Was it 50/50?
“Maybe not 50/50, but it is approaching that kind of a split. It certainly wasn’t the 10 percent of women who may have been at that conference ten years ago. Much of that increase is due to the fact that we have women pioneers — like the women I serve with on the Women in White Collar subcommittee — women like Nina Marino and Patricia Holmes Brown and Zaldwaynaka Scott.”
“They have dedicated themselves to increasing opportunities for women in this practice area. There are other associations as well. And it’s been empowering to be part of that. And I see a lot of encouragement, mentoring and networking.”
What are some of the issues that come up for women in white collar practice?
“Many of our corporate clients have women in leadership roles. And they are specifically looking for diversity in the types of teams that law firms present. That is something that corporate clients are sensitive to and firms have responded as well.”
“It’s difficult as a woman to break into this area. Part of the idea is to increase the profile of women already practicing in this area.”
[For the complete q/a format Interview with Laura Colombell Marshall, see 30 Corporate Crime Reporter 23(13), June 6, 2016, print edition only.]