Geeta Malhotra, a partner in the firm’s Chicago office, focuses her practice on white collar criminal matters, internal investigations, government enforcement actions, cybersecurity and privacy matters, and complex civil litigation.
Geeta has extensive experience conducting complex internal investigations on a variety of matters, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), fraud and bribery, privacy and wiretapping, and securities regulations. She also has experience conducting confidential investigations and counseling clients in the healthcare industry regarding, among other things, anti-kickback issues and drug promotional practices, including potential off-label promotion. Geeta defends individual and corporate clients before law enforcement and regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and various state attorneys general. In addition, Geeta conducts anti-corruption and compliance diligence in the corporate transaction context, counsels clients in the development of FCPA and other anti-corruption policies, and trains clients on anti-corruption policies, FCPA enforcement, and other investigation issues.
Clients also rely upon Geeta to navigate high-stakes cybersecurity and privacy matters, including data breach response as well as the resulting litigation and government inquiries that often follow. Geeta has served as on-call data breach counsel for clients across several industries. In this respect, she has worked closely with forensic experts on issues relating to cybersecurity and privacy. In addition, she advises clients with respect to the preparation for sophisticated cybersecurity incidents, including on the development of policies as well as the presentation of trainings and tabletop exercises.
In the civil litigation context, Geeta’s practice includes representing clients in state and federal courts in matters involving, for instance, contract disputes, business tort and consumer fraud claims, claims for trade secret misappropriation, ERISA class actions, claims for breach of fiduciary duty, and escheat and unclaimed property issues.
Geeta is also actively engaged in firm leadership as well as the civic and legal communities at large. She serves on the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Evaluation and Compensation of Associates Committee. She is a 2019 Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC), a Board Member of the Better Government Association (BGA), a Board Member of Connections for Abused Women and Their Children (CAWC), and a Member of Chicago United’s Leaders Council. Geeta also previously served as the co-chair for the American Bar Association’s Criminal Litigation Committee for the Section of Litigation. She was named by Leading Lawyers as an “Illinois Emerging Lawyer” in 2015 through 2017 in the areas of White Collar and Commercial Litigation.
Geeta served as a law clerk for the Honorable Virginia M. Kendall in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she served as a notes editor for the University of Illinois Law Review. Geeta is the author of “The Effect of Crawford v. Washington on the Admissibility of 911 Calls in Evidence-Based Domestic Violence Prosecutions,” 2006 U. Ill. L. Rev. 205.