The NACDL White Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson Announces Inaugural White Collar Criminal Defense Award Recipients

GULFPORT, Fla., Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The NACDL White Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson has announced the recipients of the inaugural White Collar Criminal Defense Award. Jan Lawrence Handzlik and Janet Levine have both been selected by the NACDL White Collar Criminal Defense College advisory board to receive the award, which honors individuals who have made a profound impact on the field of white collar criminal defense advocacy.

Jan Handzlik is a partner in Venable's national SEC/White Collar Criminal Defense Group and a nationally recognized trial lawyer specializing in white collar criminal defense and complex business litigation. He has represented individuals and companies across the country in business crime investigations and prosecutions. Earlier, Handzlik served as a federal fraud prosecutor in Los Angeles and was one of the first independent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance monitors.

Janet Levine is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Los Angeles office and chair of the firm's White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement Group. As a trial and appellate attorney with extensive experience in securities, health care, tax fraud and public corruption matters, she has represented politicians, judges, directors, officers and executives and licensed professionals in several industries.  Before entering private practice, Levine served as a Deputy Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles.

Handzlik and Levine recently successfully defended Lindsey Manufacturing Company and two of its executives on FCPA charges. Following a nearly six-week trial, and as the result of Handzlik and Levine's tenacious and steadfast efforts, the judge threw out the convictions and dismissed the FCPA indictment with prejudice. Among other notable aspects of the case, for the first time in the 30-plus year history of the FCPA, Handzlik and Levine launched a full-scale challenge to the meaning and application of several key terms in the statute. In addition, Lindsey was the first corporate defendant to challenge the DOJ at trial and submit its fate to a jury. As a result, Handzlik and Levine are two of a few select lawyers who have tried a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case.

The White Collar Criminal Defense Award recipients will be presented their awards during the "White Collar Criminal Defense College" legal education program on March 15-20, at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla.

Practitioners and those new to white collar criminal defense will gain key advocacy skills and learn substantive white collar crime law from masters in the field while attending the program, which covers practical training in handling a white collar case, including client retention, investigating a white collar case, handling searches and grand jury subpoenas, litigating pre-trial motions, seeking discovery and securing evidence favorable to the defense, and dealing with parallel proceedings.

For more information about the White Collar Criminal Defense College, contact NACDL Meetings Manager Tamara Kalacevic at (202) 872-8600 x641 or [email protected] or Stetson Law Professor Ellen S. Podgor at (727) 562-7348 or [email protected].

Editor's Note: To download a high-resolution image of Handzlik or Levine, please visit Stetson Law News.

Stetson University College of Law is Florida's first law school. It has educated lawyers for more than a century. The law school is located in the Gulfport/St. Petersburg area with a satellite campus in downtown Tampa. Stetson University's historic campus, founded in 1883 in DeLand, is home to the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Business Administration, and School of Music. Stetson also has a satellite center in Celebration offering advanced degrees.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing.  A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's 10,000-plus direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling more than 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system.

SOURCE Stetson University