Sean Hecker

Practice Areas

Appellate Litigation; Commercial Litigation; Congressional Investigations; Cryptocurrency; FCPA and Anti-Corruption; Investigations and Crisis Management; Public Interest Litigation; Regulatory Enforcement and Litigation; Securities Enforcement and Litigation; Trials; White Collar Criminal Defense

Career

Sean Hecker is a partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. He is recognized nationally as a leading trial lawyer, with a practice focusing on white collar criminal defense, government and internal investigations, complex civil litigation, and regulatory compliance.

Sean’s practice includes representing officers, directors and corporations, across various industries, in grand jury and regulatory investigations, including those conducted by the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and federal and state banking regulators and state law enforcement agencies. He also regularly represents companies and individuals in matters concerning alleged securities and commodities fraud, market manipulation, corruption (including the FCPA), accounting fraud, money laundering, tax fraud, and antitrust violations, and he handles a wide variety of civil litigation for both large and small corporations and private firms.

Sean is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of North America’s premier legal associations. Chambers USA and Chambers Global have also ranked Sean as one of the leading trial lawyers in the country and globally, describing him as “winning universal acclaim for his sophisticated practice.” Sean is ranked by Chambers as “Band 1” among white collar defense lawyers in New York, and he is also nationally ranked by Chambers for his work on FCPA matters. Sources describe Sean to Chambers as “truly one of the most gifted trial lawyers,” calling him a “terrific,” “pragmatic and down-to-earth,” “first-rate attorney,” who is “trustworthy beyond any question” and whose “judgment is unfailingly good.” Clients note that Sean is “extremely well respected by people on all sides and is one of the best in the white-collar space,” and a “very tenacious advocate.” “He is extremely knowledgeable about the law and applies it in a very practical way.”

Sean was named 2020 White Collar Crime/Investigations/Enforcement Attorney of the Year and 2024 White Collar Crime/Investigations Litigator of the Year by Benchmark Litigation, which has also recognized him for many years as among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the country. He was recently named a Leading Individual by Who’s Who Legal (“WWL”) in their Investigations rankings, with sources recognizing Sean as “a super-strategic and sharp advocate” who provides “practical and strong advice” to clients in complex investigations. WWL also named Sean as a Global Thought Leader in “Business Crime Defence – Individuals.” The Legal 500 US similarly rated Sean as a leading lawyer in corporate investigations and white collar criminal defense, describing him as “incredibly smart and [he has] great experience.”

Sean was named an Elite Boutique Trailblazer and Winning Litigator by The National Law Journal, a White Collar MVP by Law360, a Best Lawyer in America in the field of Criminal Defense: White Collar, a Leading Lawyer in America by Lawdragon, and a Thought Leader by Global Investigations Review.

In one particularly notable matter, Global Investigations Review honored Sean’s work in U.S. v. Bogucki by naming the case its 2019 “Most Important Court Case of the Year.” Serving as lead counsel to Robert Bogucki, who was accused of orchestrating an alleged $6 billion fraudulent scheme, Sean secured a rare acquittal at the conclusion of the Government’s case. Finding that no jury could reasonably convict Bogucki on the evidence presented, the presiding judge noted that he had never granted such an acquittal in his twenty years on the bench.

Sean maintains an active pro bono practice, including successfully securing a temporary restraining order that restored legal visitation rights at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY after visits had been suspended in violation of the constitutional right to counsel. He also successfully represented two New York State elected officials who were assaulted, pepper sprayed, and had their right to protest aggressively curtailed by the New York Police Department at a protest in Brooklyn.

Prior to joining KHF, Sean was a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP and a trial lawyer with the Federal Defenders of New York. As a Federal Defender, Sean defended individuals charged in the SDNY with a wide range of federal offenses and handled numerous trials and hearings. Sean was a law clerk for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and for the Honorable Sidney H. Stein for the SDNY.

Sean is the past President of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, a member of the board and past Chair of both the Office of the Appellate Defender and the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., and he previously served as Chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Mass Incarceration Task Force.

Sean received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1997, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was the Senior Note Editor of the Law Review. He received his MPP in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 1994. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Columbia College in 1992.