Jessica is a partner in the San Francisco, California, office of Baker & McKenzie LLP. She has extensive experience in conducting internal corporate investigations for companies in the technology, financial services, energy, and health care industries, with a focus on technology companies headquartered in Silicon Valley. Jessica has helped a number of well-known public and private companies navigate high-profile crisis situations involving cutting-edge government enforcement and compliance issues. Jessica brings to the table a wide range of experience in both traditional and emerging white collar issues, including in international antitrust enforcement, trade secrets theft, false claims act violations, cyber-crime, information security and privacy, crypto-currencies and tokens, ICOs, and block-chain technology.
Jessica is accomplished in defending individual executives and employees and is especially expert in defending groups of executives and employees as “pool counsel” at the internal investigation stage and throughout follow-on government and regulatory inquiries including by the SEC, DOJ, and California Attorney General's Office, and related complex civil litigation. In her role as pool counsel, Jessica assists both her clients and the clients’ company or former company in navigating the complex ethical issues that arise in multiple representation scenarios. Her expertise in this area makes it possible for the individual client pool and associated entities to enjoy the efficiency and other valuable benefits of having one knowledgeable, highly skilled lawyer defending a pool of individuals in the same matter.
White-collar matters and investigations are inherently an emotionally challenging area of legal practice, demanding a range of capabilities. In representing her white collar clients, Jessica combines an encyclopedic expertise in the legal issues at hand, the ability to absorb and evaluate an enormous amount of complex factual information, and most importantly, skill in working with clients facing a uniquely difficult personal and professional challenge – one in which their careers, and perhaps their liberty, are at stake.
Jessica has a strong grasp of the subtleties of communication required in diverse and multi-cultural environments, allowing her to achieve effective and time-efficient results in both conducting and defending individuals and pools in internal investigations. When the objective is a full, dispositive and fair investigation of potentially very serious allegations, or defense against such allegations for an individual or pool, Jessica is an invaluable counselor and extraordinarily experienced practitioner.