Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP

Founding Partner: Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan
Managing Partners: Julie Fink
Number of partners: 8
Number of lawyers: 32

Firm Overview:
Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP has received widespread recognition for combining cutting edge practices in civil litigation and white-collar investigations and litigation with a groundbreaking commitment to serving the public interest. The firm was recognized by Benchmark Litigation as the 2020 “Boutique Firm of the Year,” and its individual lawyers have consistently been individually recognized as among the leading litigators in the country. In the three years since its founding, the firm has built a track record of impressive results in high-stakes litigation, fuelled by a small team of litigators with extensive trial experience and wide-ranging subject matter expertise.

Main Areas of Practice:
• Appellate Litigation
• Commercial Litigation
• Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
• Employment, Discrimination, and Sexual Misconduct
• FCPA and Anti-Corruption
• Investigations and Crisis Management
• Public Interest Litigation
• Regulatory and Securities Matters and Litigation
• Trials
• White Collar Criminal Defense

Commercial Litigation:
• Securing a preliminary injunction against a New York City ordinance on behalf of Airbnb that would have required the home-sharing platform to turn over massive amounts of private information about its users on a monthly basis.
• Representing JUMP by Uber in connection with a federal lawsuit against the Los Angeles Department of Transportation related to unconstitutional regulations that require the provision of real-time location data in a manner that infringes on the privacy rights of users of the company’s e-bikes and other new mobility products.
• Securing dismissals of several lawsuits against Columbia University, which alleged that the university had not fulfilled its obligations under Title IX or the New York State or New York City Human Rights Laws.

White-Collar Criminal Defense:
• Winning a “rare” acquittal for Robert Bogucki, the former head of the Barclays’ foreign-exchange trading desk, on wire fraud charges at the conclusion of the Government’s case. Global Investigations Review honored Kaplan Hecker’s work in the matter by naming Bogucki its 2019 “Most Important Court Case of the Year,” and Benchmark Litigation named the case a 2020 “Impact Case of the Year.”
• Securing a favorable settlement for our client, after he and ten other individuals and entities were charged by the SEC for their alleged participation in long-running fraudulent schemes.
• Fending off an investigation of potential insider trading and violation of SEC rules related to trading in non-firm trading accounts by our client. After multiple presentations and having our client testify with the SEC, both the DOJ and the SEC declined to bring any charges.

Regulatory and Securities Matters and Litigation:
• Securing the dismissal of a whistleblower lawsuit for AECOM, a prominent government contractor, in a False Claims Act case related to the company’s $1.9 billion contract with the U.S. Army. Kaplan Hecker lawyers were previously able to persuade the Government to decline to intervene in the case.
• Reaching a favorable settlement on behalf of a hedge fund client with the New York Department of Financial Services and the New York Attorney General in connection with the firm’s investment in a business accused of running a predatory lending scheme. The favorable settlement required no admission of wrongdoing.
• Representing one of the key individuals involved in a CFTC and SDNY investigation of a major foreign financial services organization in connection with certain bond issuances and related swaps trading.

FCPA and Anti-Corruption:
• Securing a government dismissal of the FCPA complaint against Cheikh Gadio, the former foreign minister of Senegal, along with a non-prosecution agreement.
• Representing a global healthcare company in connection with pending DOJ and SEC investigations of potential anti-trust and corruption issues in both Latin America and Asia.
• Representing an individual in the energy trading industry in connection with a DOJ FCPA investigation of activities in Latin America.

Public Interest Litigation:
• Suing the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who organized the and racial- and religious-based violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the summer of 2017.
• Representing a group of investors suing President Trump, his business, and his family, alleging fraud committed by the Trump family and Trump Organization in relation to a multi-level marketing scheme tied to a telecommunications company.
• Securing a Temporary Restraining Order restoring legal visitation at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, after it was suspended by the Bureau of Prisons during a government shutdown and subsequent weather event in violation of the constitutional right to counsel. A ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in March 2020 led to the appointment of former Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch as mediator in the case, in part given the increased urgency of legal access amid the COVID-19 pandemic.