Megan Cunniff Church is a highly accomplished trial lawyer who represents companies and individuals in high-stakes criminal and regulatory matters and complex civil litigation. She conducts corporate internal investigations in the U.S. and abroad, and she advises clients on crisis and risk management.
As a former federal prosecutor, Ms. Church has extensive experience investigating, litigating, and successfully resolving white collar criminal and regulatory matters. She served as a Deputy Chief of the Financial Crimes section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where she prosecuted and supervised complex health care fraud, tax fraud, and corporate and financial crimes cases. She also served as a Deputy Chief of the General Crimes section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she trained and supervised new prosecutors on federal criminal practice.
In nearly a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney, Ms. Church investigated and prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, public corruption, money laundering, narcotics and weapons violations, international drug trafficking, identity theft, cybercrime, embezzlement, human trafficking, and organized crime. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the Public Corruption section, Ms. Church prosecuted and convicted numerous public officials and law enforcement officers for fraud, bribery, extortion, and tax offenses. She also led criminal investigations involving parallel civil proceedings conducted by federal and state civil regulators.
As a partner at MoloLamken LLP, Ms. Church has conducted internal investigations of publicly-traded companies and represented corporate and government officials in investigations and prosecutions by various U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the Department of Justice, inspectors general, Congress, the SEC, and other government regulators. In addition to representing targets and subjects in criminal and regulatory investigations, Ms. Church has represented key witnesses during investigations and subsequent trials.
Ms. Church has tried 18 cases to verdict, and she has briefed and argued nearly a dozen matters in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Ms. Church has taught trial advocacy at the University of Chicago Law School and Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She currently serves on the Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness. She also conducts trainings on criminal and civil procedure for the City of Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Previously, Ms. Church was as an associate with Baker & McKenzie and with McDermott Will & Emery. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable William J. Bauer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and to the Honorable Joan H. Lefkow of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.