Vanessa Johannes

Practice Areas

Vanessa Singh Johannes is a seasoned trial attorney who counsels individuals and corporations on a wide array of civil, criminal, and compliance matters. She offers clients nearly two decades of experience, both as a former federal prosecutor and complex litigator.

For a decade, Vanessa honorably served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where she tried dozens of jury trials, handled hundreds of criminal and civil investigations, and argued appellate matters before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She investigated, indicted, and tried cases involving serious crimes that affected everyday people in the Miami community, large companies, and U.S. taxpayers, including fraud, money laundering, espionage, civil rights, arms trafficking, human trafficking, and murder.

Vanessa’s vast experience as an assistant U.S. attorney lends her unique insight into all phases of government investigations — such as grand jury inquiries, complex search warrants, and mutual legal assistance treaty requests — and reliable knowledge of federal practice in the district. During her tenure, she also developed a close working relationship with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In private practice across two major law firms, Vanessa has developed a successful track record handling complex “bet-the-company” cases. She represents companies in an array of civil matters, complex litigation, and crises and assists clients in responding to federal agency inquiries, conducting internal investigations, board presentations, training on relevant laws, and crafting compliance programs to meet legal regulatory and criminal requirements. Armed with her experience as a federal prosecutor, Vanessa also handles complex criminal matters, including those involving the False Claims Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Education