Giannini, Anthony A.

Jeff Rawitz is a trial lawyer practicing complex civil litigation and white-collar defense in state and federal courts, with an emphasis on intellectual property crimes, securities fraud, and unfair business practices claims. He also frequently counsels and represents corporate clients and their executives with issues of corporate integrity, internal security and breaches, and compliance before various regulatory agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and United States Attorney's Offices throughout the country. Having served nine years as an assistant U.S. attorney, Jeff brings tremendous experience and strategic advantage to the Firm's white-collar practice with his in-depth knowledge of the tactics and strategies used by prosecutors and defense counsel. Jeff is currently serving a two-term as co-chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section White Collar Crime Committee's Computer Crime, Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets Subcommittee.

Many of Jeff's recent representations involve several of the Firm's most significant clients in crisis management situations where they have been victimized by a variety of types of computer crimes. Recently, Jeff oversaw the internal investigation and criminal referral of an individual who victimized one of the Firm's Fortune 50 clients in an Internet "phishing" scheme in which a counterfeit Web site was established in order to defraud customers. Similarly, Jeff oversaw the internal investigation and criminal referral for two public company clients after their computer systems were hacked and the credit history of their customers was stolen. Additionally, Jeff has successfully coordinated all aspects of the internal investigations and criminal referrals of individuals engaged in international corporate espionage through the theft of highly sensitive trade secrets and works with federal and state and law enforcement agencies to facilitate prosecutions of these individuals. On the defense side, Jeff obtained declinations of prosecution for a company being investigated for selling counterfeit software and for a brokerage firm being investigated for copyright and trademark infringement relating to software it was licensing. As a result of Jeff's extensive experience on the interrelationship between intellectual property, the Internet, and criminal law, he is frequently asked to author articles and give presentations on these topics.

More generally, Jeff has undertaken several notable and high-profile representations, including the successful representation of the former head of the Hotel Workers' Union in Honolulu, the chief executive officer of a publicly traded company who was charged in the Capital Consultants litigation stemming from the collapse of the subprime mortgage-backed securities market in the late 1990s, and attorneys being investigated or charged with various state and federal crimes. Additionally, Jeff is actively representing several senior executives and in-house counsel in relation to a number of Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney investigations concerning the backdating of stock options. Also, Jeff led a team of lawyers who represented Dewayne McKinney, a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and served 19 years in prison before being released. Mr. McKinney's remarkable story and Jeff's efforts on his behalf are being chronicled by the ABC news program "20/20," which will air in October 2007.

While a federal prosecutor, Jeff worked in the asset forfeiture, narcotics, and public corruption & government fraud sections of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California. Among the types of prosecutions that he conducted, were cases involving corruption by high-level government officials; tax, health care, and mail fraud; civil rights, labor law, and immigration violations; money laundering; and illegal campaign contributions.

Among the more notable prosecutions that he conducted while at the U.S. Attorney's Office were cases targeting the then governor of Arizona for bank fraud; the then acting controller of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority for mail fraud; the chairman of a corporation for illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and several sitting members of Congress; the president and vice president of a construction company for taking kickbacks and submitting false invoices to the Department of Labor; and the owner and certain employees of a diagnostic laboratory for submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal. During the course of his career at the U.S. Attorney's Office, Jeff conducted more than a dozen federal criminal jury trials, several civil trials, and numerous arguments before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, several of which resulted in published opinions. Jeff also has experience in complex civil cases, including product liability, environmental regulations, and age discrimination.