Winston & Strawn Expands White Collar Litigation Team with Addition of Carol Alexis Chen

LOS ANGELES, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Winston & Strawn LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Carol Alexis Chen as partner in the firm's Los Angeles office and as a member of the firm's White Collar, Regulatory Defense, and Investigations Practice. 

Carol served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles for the last 15 years, most recently as the first female Chief in office history of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section. Carol's tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney includes service in both the Criminal and Civil Divisions, with extensive criminal and civil casework and first chair trial experience. Carol has directed federal and local law enforcement in hundreds of large-scale, complex federal criminal grand jury and wiretap investigations, evaluated thousands of investigations for federal prosecution, trained countless law enforcement agents and prosecutors, and helped to lead law enforcement and community outreach efforts.

This expansion of Winston's white collar litigation team follows the recent addition of 15 attorneys focused on white collar litigation and complex commercial litigation from the law office of Scheper Kim & Harris LLP. A boutique firm in Los Angeles, Scheper Kim & Harris concentrated on complex commercial litigation and related appellate proceedings, as well as all aspects of white collar defense, including pre-charging investigations and litigation in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

"I am excited to be joining Winston & Strawn, which has a stellar reputation for being a top-tier trial firm. Given my years of public service, I was also particularly attracted to its robust diversity platform and consistent dedication to pro bono causes," said Carol.  "Winston is a forward-looking firm, and that extends to its commitment to building a top-notch white collar practice. I have known David Scheper and his team for years and look forward to working with them and leveraging my prosecutorial experience and wide network of close relationships with various components of the Department of Justice as well as federal and local law enforcement agencies to help continue to expand Winston's capabilities on the West Coast." 

"Carol is a renowned trial attorney and a welcome addition to our growing litigation team in LA and on the West Coast," said Eva Davis, Los Angeles office managing partner and member of the Firm's executive committee. "She will be an incredible asset to our clients as California courts begin to resume operations and we address the expected increase in federal prosecutions for financial and white collar crimes, and government investigations."   

Under Carol's leadership, the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section (previously known as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Section ("OCDETF")) expanded the use of federal drug trafficking, money laundering, financial, tax, forfeiture, racketeering, and fraud laws to combat international and significant domestic narcotics trafficking and money laundering organizations, emerging and traditional organized criminal syndicates including those which utilize the dark net and digital currency, racketeering enterprises, and companies and individuals responsible for the manufacture and distribution of opioids. In her role as chief, Carol led numerous district-wide money laundering and financial crimes initiatives, task forces, and working groups, including those combating trade-based fraud; money laundering; unlicensed money remitting businesses; customs violations; fraud, money laundering, and other financial crime offenses committed through the use of casinos (including tribal casinos), the dark net, and cryptocurrency; tax fraud; and Bank Secrecy Act violations.  

Carol also helped to oversee the nationally modeled opioids enforcement program which utilizes advanced data and analytics to target physicians, pharmacies, and medical clinics engaged in illicit drug diversion and to secure convictions on charges including health care fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and acquiring DEA registrations and controlled substances through fraud.

"Winston & Strawn has a well-earned reputation as a trial lawyer's firm, and Carol's addition to the team underscores the high level of talent we continue to attract to our bench," said Winston Chairman Tom Fitzgerald. "The COVID-19 pandemic has created a significant backlog of trial cases, and Carol's experience as a federal prosecutor will be invaluable as we meet this demand, particularly in light of the recent passage of new laws and regulations targeting money laundering, and early signals that the new administration will take a more active approach toward enforcement actions against companies and corporations." 

Carol is the recipient of numerous accolades, including Los Angeles County Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section's 2019 Prosecutor of the Year Award and the OCDETF Director's 2018 National Award for Outstanding Transnational Money Laundering Investigation of the Year, nominations for the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2020 and 2017 and for the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney in 2018 and 2017, and commendations from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, Office of Inspector General, and the United States Postal Inspection Service to name just a few.  Carol earned a B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Upon graduation, she clerked for the (Late) Honorable Pamela Ann Rymer on the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena, California, and for the (Retired) Honorable Lourdes G. Baird, then a District Judge for the Central District of California. 

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm with 15 offices located throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. More information about the firm is available at www.winston.com.

SOURCE Winston & Strawn LLP

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