Vanessa Johannes

Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations, Labor & Employment, Litigation

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 Administration, 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.

Prior to joining Foley, Vanessa was the co-managing shareholder of a national law firm’s Miami office.

Representative Experience

Trial Experience

Vanessa has tried dozens of criminal cases before a federal jury as a federal prosecutor and defense attorney in the Southern District of Florida. Examples of her trial work include:

Defense of a health care facility CEO charged with 28 counts, including health care fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.*

Prosecution of an aerospace executive for orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot against his business partner.

Prosecution of a former military contractor for espionage, fraud, and trafficking.

Prosecution of a gang leader for assaulting and sexually trafficking women.

Prosecution of a truck driver and suspected serial killer for kidnapping and assault.

Prosecution of a Miami firefighter for distribution of child pornography.

Prosecution of a high school teacher for enticing a minor student to engage in sexual relations.

Representative Civil Matters

Represented a Fortune 500 financial institution in billion-dollar antitrust litigation in federal court.*

Represented a nonprofit foundation in a lawsuit against a purported hedge fund manager who ran a million-dollar Ponzi scheme in New York.*

Represented a Fortune 100 telecommunications company in an environmental toxic tort litigation in federal court.*

Represented a large utility and energy company conducting an internal investigation into potential corruption actions committed by company managers and executives.*

Represented the CEO and founder of a telecommunications company facing a federal criminal wire fraud and money laundering investigation.*

Represented various corporations’ litigation interests in bankruptcy court.*

*Matters handled prior to joining Foley.