John S. (Jay) Darden

John S. (Jay) Darden is a partner in the Investigations and White Collar Defense practice at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Jay has practiced law for over 25 years, both as a defense attorney and a federal prosecutor.

Jay’s clients are typically companies, as well as executives and individuals, that are targets of high-risk investigations by the U.S. government for all manner of white-collar criminal and civil allegations, including bribery, false books-and-records, inadequate internal controls, securities fraud, accounting fraud, embezzlement, healthcare fraud and false claims, anti-kickback violations, tax fraud, export violations and false statements. Jay also conducts internal investigations for clients into these same types of allegations.

Over the last several years, Jay has defended a number of clients in investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Jay’s public, high-profile FCPA representations have included: ABB Ltd. (Switzerland); Braskem S.A. (Brazil); Embraer (Brazil); Alstom S.A. (France); TechnipFMC plc (U.K.); and Orthofix (U.S.). Jay also has been successful in obtaining DOJ and SEC declinations for FCPA-related clients, some of which are public and some of which are not.

Jay is recognized among the top lawyers with both the most public FCPA representations and the most public FCPA declinations, a rare combination.

Jay also assists companies by coordinating U.S. investigations with parallel corruption investigations by foreign authorities. Paul Hastings’ experience in this area is unmatched.

Jay also provides clients with anti-corruption compliance advice and represents companies in connection with both DOJ/SEC-appointed monitorships and self-monitorships.

As a prosecutor at DOJ, Jay served as an assistant chief of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, where he worked on healthcare fraud and anti-kickback violations, FCPA, bank fraud, insurance fraud, money laundering and false statement matters. During his time at DOJ, Jay tried multiple cases to verdict. In addition, he trained prosecutors and federal agents in healthcare fraud matters at the Justice Department’s National Advocacy Center. For his work as a prosecutor in healthcare fraud matters, Jay received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.

Prior to attending law school, Jay worked on Capitol Hill for three years as an aide to former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.