Rebekah Donaleski

Practice Areas

Rebekah is a former federal prosecutor who has handled some of the most complex, sensitive and headline-grabbing matters for the Department of Justice – including corruption offenses, complex financial fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, tax crimes, foreign influence offenses, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and sanctions violations for individuals and corporations. Bekah spent nearly a decade at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), most recently as chief of the Public Corruption Unit. At Cooley, she leverages her significant trial experience and deep knowledge of government investigations and regulatory enforcement to reach successful outcomes for clients.

As chief of the Public Corruption Unit for the SDNY, Bekah supervised 20 senior prosecutors in hundreds of investigations and prosecutions concerning a wide range of white-collar matters. Most notably, Bekah oversaw the investigations and prosecutions of US Sen. Robert Menendez, Sam Bankman-Fried for campaign finance offenses, Ghislaine Maxwell, Michael Avenatti and Lev Parnas, as well as other high-ranking officials in local, state and federal government. Bekah is an experienced trial lawyer who has tried nine jury trials to guilty verdicts, directly supervised 10 other trials, and argued and briefed 16 cases before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Bekah has significant experience working closely with key components and leadership of federal, state and foreign law enforcement and regulatory agencies. Before her time in the Public Corruption Unit, she served in the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, where she handled high-profile terrorism and national security matters and twice won the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Director’s Award. Her notable matters included the convictions after trial of Akayed Ullah, who attempted to bomb the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, and Joseph Hunter, a former US Army sergeant turned international mercenary killer.

Before her work as a prosecutor, Bekah clerked for Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the US District Court for the SDNY and was an associate in the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where she handled securities litigation matters and internal investigations.