Cybercrime And National Security Prosecutor Shoba Pillay Joins Jenner & Block In Chicago

CHICAGO, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jenner & Block announced today that Shoba Pillay, a former Assistant US Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, has joined the firm in its Chicago office. Ms. Pillay has more than 10 years of investigations, trial, and appellate experience in fraud, cybercrime, data privacy, export control and sanctions, trade secrets, and intellectual property cases. She joins as a partner in the firm's Investigations, Compliance, and Defense Practice and the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice.

"With significant experience overseeing and trying major cybersecurity, export controls and trade sanctions, trade secrets, and complex fraud cases, Shoba complements our leading investigations, compliance, and white collar defense team," said Jenner & Block Co-Managing Partners Katya Jestin and Randy Mehrberg. "Her expertise also broadens our growing cybersecurity and national security teams, as we offer an increasingly robust suite of services to clients."

While serving in the US Attorney's Office's National Security and Cybercrime Section, Ms. Pillay led complex investigations and prosecutions involving export control issues and international sanctions violations. She has experience with matters involving cybercrimes and electronic evidence collection, and has served as a subject matter expert in cybercrime prosecutions.

"Shoba strikes the right balance of substantive experience in complex fraud, cyber, data privacy, and sanctions that is needed for clients confronting a broad range of compliance risks and government-facing investigations," said Erin R. Schrantz, a co-chair of the Investigations, Compliance, and Defense Practice. "As well as being an accomplished and well-respected prosecutor, Shoba shares our values of collaboration, diversity and inclusion, service to the bar, and mentorship."

Ms. Pillay's government experience includes managing large teams of agents and junior AUSAs across various units. As an AUSA, she has taken 18 federal criminal trials to verdict, argued nine appeals in the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and first-chaired complex investigations and jury trials. Among her significant prosecutions, Ms. Pillay first-chaired a trade secrets case involving a Chinese company, prosecuted a computer intrusion of a Fortune 500 company, and prosecuted a federal defense contractor for illegally exporting technical data to China.

"Shoba has been first chair in many large investigations during her time in the government and has managed multi-disciplinary teams of varying ages, personalities, and work styles – a skill that will serve her, and our clients, well in private practice," said Reid J. Schar, a co-chair of the firm's Litigation Department who is also a former prosecutor in the Northern District of Illinois. "Her commitment to mentoring junior lawyers is clear," he added.

Ms. Pillay has also been active in criminal justice reform. Working with a group of federal judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, and pretrial services officers, she helped form and operate the Sentencing Options that Achieve Results (SOAR) Court in the Northern District of Illinois – which provides an alternative to incarceration for non-violent federal pretrial defendants.

"Cyber investigations and cyber compliance issues are on the rise, and I'm excited to bring my government experience and skill set to Jenner & Block. They have a stellar reputation in the investigations sector and are a litigation powerhouse; I'm eager to dig in, collaborate, and lend my expertise to the firm's clients, both current and future," said Ms. Pillay.

Ms. Pillay is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, where she teaches cybercrime investigations and cybersecurity, and at the Northwestern University School of Law, where she teaches trial advocacy. She received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis and received her JD from Boston College Law School.

ABOUT JENNER & BLOCK'S INVESTIGATIONS, COMPLIANCE, AND DEFENSE PRACTICE
For more than 60 years, Jenner & Block has represented corporations and individuals in complex internal investigations, criminal prosecutions, grand jury investigations, extradition proceedings, and civil enforcement actions brought by government agencies, including the US Department of Justice, US Securities Exchange Commission, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and UK Serious Fraud Office. Known for handling some of the largest internal investigations in history, Jenner & Block's lawyers are called upon by companies, boards of directors, and audit and special committees to conduct investigations and provide counsel in the most demanding and complex government, regulatory and investigatory matters. The practice also has significant experience in advising clients on compliance with relevant laws and regulations, ranging from advising on establishing appropriate anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs, to advising on ensuring an entity is not involved in the facilitation of tax evasion or in breach of regulations concerning modern slavery.

The team includes lawyers who have moved between public service and private practice, including Neil M. Barofsky, former Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Recovery Program; David Bitkower, former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ's Criminal Division; Thomas J. Perrelli, former US Associate Attorney General; Charles Riely, former assistant regional director for the Division of Enforcement for the SEC; Anton R. Valukas, former US Attorney; and Andrew Weissmann, former lead prosecutor in the Special Counsel investigation, former Chief of the Fraud Section in the DOJ's Criminal Division, former General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Director of the Enron Task Force, and the Chief of the Criminal Division in the US Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York, as well as former federal prosecutors Reid J. Schar (Northern District of Illinois), Katya Jestin (Eastern District of New York), Anthony S. Barkow (Southern District of New York, District of Columbia and Main Justice) and many others.

About Jenner & Block's Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice
In the face of today's proliferation of legal regimes governing data processing and threat actors targeting the data itself, Jenner & Block's Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice provides holistic, proactive advice to clients. Organizations turn to Jenner & Block for counseling on a variety of privacy and data security issues. The group helps organizations develop a secure and practical legal framework for the data that they collect, use, analyze, and share, and we help defend that framework from legal challenge. The team also works with clients to investigate and respond to threats targeting their data. The lawyers in the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice represent an interdisciplinary roster of lawyers who counsel, investigate, and litigate on behalf of clients across a wide array of privacy and data security issues in the United States and Europe.

ABOUT JENNER & BLOCK
Jenner & Block LLP is a law firm with global reach, with offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. The firm is known for its prominent and successful litigation practice, global investigations, and experience handling sophisticated and high-profile corporate transactions. Its clients include Fortune 100 companies, technology companies, large privately held corporations, emerging companies, Native American tribes, and venture capital and private equity investors. In 2020, The American Lawyer recognized the firm for the fourth consecutive year as the #1 pro bono firm in the United States, marking the 10th time in 13 years the firm has received this recognition. In 2020, the publication also recognized the firm as the #3 international pro bono firm, and in 2018, named the firm as its first "Pro Bono Champion." In 2020, Reuters Legal named the firm its inaugural "Pro Bono Hero."

SOURCE Jenner & Block LLP