Special Advisors to the Kirkland & Ellis Corporate Lab

Andrew S. Boutros

Andrew S. Boutros

Andrew S. Boutros is Regional Chair of Dechert LLP’s U.S. White Collar practice, where he is resident in the firm’s Chicago and Washington, D.C. offices. He is a former federal prosecutor in the Financial Crimes and Special Prosecutions Section of the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office. Mr. Boutros now represents companies large and small, public and private, victims and targets as well as their boards, audit committees, officers, directors and other individuals in government enforcement matters (DOJ, USAO, FBI, SEC and other agencies) and internal investigations. His practice also includes trials, false claims litigation, crisis management response, strategic counseling and compliance-related work. Since 2011 Mr. Boutros has been a lecturer in law at the Law School, where for 14 consecutive years he has taught a course on corporate criminal prosecutions and investigations.  He has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2015 and today serves on ALI’s Regional Advisory Group for Region 7 (Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin). Most recently, he was inducted into the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, which has a membership that stands at only 79 worldwide from 31 jurisdictions, with just 18 Fellows in the United States.

Representative Areas of Practice: Mr. Boutros has personally represented clients in matters involving general fraud, embezzlement, trade secret theft, cryptocurrencies, cyber breaches and extortion incidents, OFAC, RICO, FARA, the Travel Act, tax violations, commercial bribery, kickback schemes, public corruption, Inspector General investigations, insurance fraud, bank fraud, securities and accounting violations, healthcare and FDA violations, environmental crimes, criminal antitrust violations, supply chain issues, government contract disputes involving allegations of wrongdoing, whistleblower allegations and the False Claims Act, among others. Mr. Boutros also has significant experience handling criminal customs, trade and antidumping duty fraud cases. Since the early 2000s, he has conducted FCPA investigations in Canada, China, Russia, Europe and the Middle East and advised clients on FCPA corporate compliance matters and programs. Twice Mr. Boutros was hired to serve as a legal expert on the FCPA. In the first engagement, he was retained as an FCPA expert to render a formal legal opinion in a transnational post-acquisition dispute. Most recently, he was hired by one of the world’s largest public companies to serve as a testifying legal expert on the FCPA in criminal proceedings in the Middle East. Also, Mr. Boutros served as Legal Counsel to the Independent Compliance Monitor for a series of pharmacy entities, pursuant to a U.S. Department of Labor administrative agreement.

Government, Trial, and Appellate Experience: Over the course of his career, Mr. Boutros has led a number of high-profile cases of national and international significance, which the Chicago Sun-Times described in a profile of Mr. Boutros as "some of the toughest, most sophisticated cases at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse." As a federal prosecutor, he coordinated efforts with international law enforcement authorities in more than 20 countries and charged and prosecuted crimes involving US$500 million in losses, proceeds and judgments. In this regard, Mr. Boutros (i) convicted the world’s largest online drug trafficker on the dark website, "Silk Road," and was a member of the government’s inter-agency, multi- district Silk Road Task Force; (ii) convicted one of the country's "Top 10 Most Wanted" mortgage fraud defendants; (iii) convicted Edgewater Medical Center’s owner and operator for crimes relating to more than US$188 million in judgments; (iv) successfully prosecuted the most extensive international criminal trade, customs and antidumping fraud cases of their kind, which Bloomberg Businessweek described as "the largest food fraud in U.S. history;" and (v) negotiated two of the Northern District of Illinois’s earliest criminal corporate deferred prosecution agreements. While in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Boutros also handled hundreds of matters; briefed and argued appeals to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; and tried or prepped for trial dozens of cases.

Professional Activities: Among his leadership and board activities, Mr. Boutros is a Co-Founder and National Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Global Anti-Corruption Committee, a board member of the International Association of Independent Corporate Monitors and a member of the Chicago Crime Commission. Also, for six years, he was a voting member of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section Council, the governing body of the Section with its more than 16,000 members. Before that, he was a Special Advisor to the Council. In addition, Mr. Boutros was Founder and National Chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Task Force on College Due Process Rights and Victim Protections. The Task Force’s bipartisan Report and Recommendations were both unanimously approved by the Task Force’s members and unanimously endorsed by the Criminal Justice Section Council. That work has since become among the key foundational documents that colleges and universities from across the country, including the university system for the State of California, have turned to for guidance for handling allegations of student sexual misconduct. The Department of Education also formally adopted many of the Task Force’ s recommendations when it promulgated regulations on the subject.

Articles, Books, and Speaking Engagements: Mr. Boutros has authored nearly 150 articles, thought pieces and book chapters. He has also published two books: the first on compliance, The ABA Compliance Officer’s Deskbook (2017) and the second with Oxford University Press on global anti- corruption, From ‘Baksheesh’ to Bribery: Examining the Global Fight Against Corruption and Graft (2019). Mr. Boutros has chaired and organized various legal programs and been a presenter at 85 domestic and international programs. His presentations have covered the FCPA, international corruption, white collar criminal defense, government enforcement, customs and antidumping duty fraud, international and trade fraud, food fraud, supply chain integrity, corporate social responsibility, human trafficking and other related topics. As part of his thought leadership, Mr. Boutros coined the term “carbon copy” prosecution, a phrase that describes a growing global enforcement trend that has since been recognized by the Department of Justice in its “pile on” enforcement policy.

Honors and Recognitions: Mr. Boutros’s successes have earned him recognition from the government, law enforcement and legal communities. In 2015, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association selected Mr. Boutros as the national prosecutor of the year, presenting him with the prestigious National Prosecutorial Award. In 2014, the American Bar Association awarded Mr. Boutros the Criminal Justice Section’s Norm Maleng Minister of Justice Award, among the highest honors the ABA can confer upon a prosecutor. The FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have also presented Mr. Boutros with some of their highest honors. In addition, senior government officials have showcased his cases in their testimony before Congress, including hearings before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. In 2018, Mr. Boutros and his work were featured in the debut of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated documentary series on food fraud, Rotten, in the episode, "Lawyers, Guns, and Honey." Mr. Boutros is a frequent legal commentator on national and international television.

Contact

Andrew S. Boutros
andrew.boutros@dechert.com

Jason Sussman

Jason Sussman

Jason Sussman is a Managing Director and member of the Investment Committee at The Pritzker Organization, the merchant bank for Tom Pritzker Family business interests. His related current and past board positions include Ferian Re, Steward Partners, Portfolio Group, GreyCastle Holdings and Financeit. In addition, he manages a portfolio of credit and preferred equity investments. He also serves on the advisory councils of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at University of Chicago and Invest for Kids.

Previously, he was a vice president in structured finance at Barclays Capital, where he held a proprietary investments role.  He started his career as a tax associate at Davis, Polk and Wardwell.

Mr. Sussman has served as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2014. He created and teaches the course, “Structuring Financial Instruments,” an eight week seminar.

Mr. Sussman is a CFA charterholder. He received his BA (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and his JD (with high honors) from Columbia University.

Contact

Jason Sussman
jason.r.sussman@gmail.com