Ms. O’Prey handles complex litigation, internal investigations and white collar criminal defense. She founded and led the internal investigations team at GE for the Alstom acquisition, GE’s largest acquisition in its history. This team played a critical role in terms of culture and risk management, managing more than 500 internal investigations in a two year period and attempting to uncover acts of legal wrongdoing following the then largest FCPA fine in history (against Alstom). She led a team of 10 investigators globally and, thus, is attuned to the heightened risks and cultural sensitivities in conducting investigations in multiple jurisdictions. Her team investigated a wide range compliance concerns from FCPA, Controllership, Fraud, Theft to #metoo or sexual harassment investigations.
Before going in-house, she focused her career on complex civil litigation and on representing institutions and individuals that were subject to investigation by criminal or regulatory authorities (DOJ, SEC, FINRA). Ms. O’Prey’s clients ranged from a textile retailer to some of the most successful hedge funds in the US, including individuals and executives are financial institutions. She first-chaired a jury trial involving claims of copyright infringement and received a favorable verdict for her client. In addition to being an experienced litigator, she is a trained arbitrator and mediator.
Ms. O’Prey’s experience representing individuals and institutions in white collar matters is extensive including representing the receiver in a Madoff-like scheme, representing the CEO of a major insurance company in an SEC investigation related to reinsurance, representing a hedge fund in a criminal prosecution for insider trading, representing numerous financial professionals in FINRA proceedings, and representing executives at a major bank in connection with an investigation into making of complex financial instruments.
She has extensive experience leading GE Capital’s and GE Alstom’s Open Reporting or whistleblowing programs, as well as serving as special counsel to Heads of Litigation, Chief Compliance Officers and Chief Executive Officers, ensuring that they have an independent review to provide comfort before they take action. She has led, rolled out, trained and monitored a global compliance program for a ~70,000 employee organization. Whether you are a company that needs to supplement its compliance resources or to rely on outside consulting to ensure a robust compliance program, she can help you. If you are an executive who wants to ensure that you are fully comfortable with either the binding documents you are being asked to sign or the actions you are taking, Ms. O’Prey has experience providing an independent advice as a “straight shooter”, so that you can account for and identify the risks and return to leading and focusing on your “day job”.
Ms. O’Prey is an active leader in both the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation, and her alma mater, the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, currently serving on the Board of Governors. In her spare time, she also leads two Girl Scout troops.