Lauren Resnick focuses her practice on white collar criminal and regulatory matters, internal corporate investigations and commercial litigation.
Since joining the firm, Ms. Resnick has conducted numerous internal investigations on behalf of international companies in the financial services, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries regarding accounting irregularities, FCPA violations, conflicts of interest and regulatory compliance matters. She has responded to governmental subpoenas on behalf of corporate clients and represented individuals, private entities and public companies in connection with criminal and regulatory investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Ms. Resnick regularly advises corporate clients on optimizing internal controls and corporate governance, revising business codes of conduct and designing policies and procedures to enhance statutory and regulatory compliance.
As a member of the Baker Hostetler team serving as Counsel to the SIPA Trustee for the largest Ponzi scheme in history, Lauren Resnick supervises the extensive financial reconstruction of the decades-long operation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC for the ongoing liquidation and litigation proceedings. Drawing from her experience conducting complex corporate investigations, Ms. Resnick directs a team of Baker Hostetler lawyers and oversees the Trustee’s forensic accounting consultants in identifying and analyzing the systems and procedures utilized by Madoff to report fictitious trading. In addition, Ms. Resnick is a core member of the strategy team that supervises the global investigation and litigation of hundreds of actions seeking the recovery of fraudulent transfers for equitable distribution to the defrauded customers filed by the Trustee in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York against financial institutions, money managers, insiders and sophisticated investors.
Ms. Resnick has supervised numerous monitorships in connection with the firm’s appointment by the Department of Justice and other governmental agencies to assess compliance procedures and controls at banking institutions, labor unions, private companies and municipalities. In connection with the firm’s current appointment by a federal judge as Ethical Practices Attorney for Local 14 and 14B, she and the team enforce the Consent Decree requiring eradication of organized crime influence at the operating engineers union and provide oversight to ensure fair job referral and election procedures.
Much of Ms. Resnick’s monitorship experience has focused on the banking industry. In connection with the firm’s appointment as Monitor of a non-prosecution agreement between the Department of Justice and Merrill Lynch & Co. stemming from the Enron probe, Ms. Resnick managed a team of Baker Hostetler lawyers and forensic specialists in assessing the review of complex structured finance transactions and providing recommendations to senior management. She supervised a similar team in connection with the firm’s appointment as Independent Examiner of a non-prosecution agreement between the Department of Justice and the Bank of New York, reporting directly to the government and banking regulators on the bank’s anti-money laundering program. Ms. Resnick also managed a legal team in connection with the firm’s appointment as Monitor of a non-prosecution agreement between the Department of Justice and Mellon Bank, N.A., which assessed the bank’s global compliance and employee training programs involving data privacy, government contracting, FCPA and other regulatory compliance issues.
Apart from her white collar and regulatory compliance practice, Ms. Resnick handles a variety of commercial litigation matters. She represented a senior government official in Iqbal v. Ashcroft, which involved constitutional and statutory challenges to the detention policies following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The matter was litigated to the United States Supreme Court and resulted in a favorable defense ruling on the pleading standards required to bring actions in federal court.
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Resnick served for 10 years in a variety of positions in the United States Department of Justice. As an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where she was Chief of the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, Ms. Resnick investigated and prosecuted complex criminal cases involving trademark, copyright and computer offenses, money laundering, bank and other commercial fraud, public corruption, civil rights violations, racketeering and violent crimes. Ms. Resnick has received numerous awards and commendations for her work as a prosecutor and has twice received the Justice Department’s prestigious Director’s Award for Superior Performance.
During her federal tenure, Ms. Resnick was a lead prosecutor in a series of civil rights cases engendering extensive public interest in the New York metropolitan area. Ms. Resnick led the government team in the retrial of Lemrick Nelson, Jr., for the racially motivated fatal stabbing of Yankel Rosenbaum during the 1991 anti-Semitic riots in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. She also successfully prosecuted New York City police officers Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz for their roles in the 1997 sexual assault of Abner Louima. Ms. Resnick currently serves on the board of the Association of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Before joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Resnick served as a law clerk for the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
A few of Ms. Resnick’s publications include:
12/31/2011 - 2011 Super Lawyers Announced
12/22/2011 - Baker Hostetler and inMotion Host Holiday Donation Presentation Breakfast for New York City Family Justice Center
11/1/2011 - “Best Lawyers in America” Recognizes 111 Baker Hostetler Attorneys