EXPERIENCE

Harris has handled major criminal and regulatory matters and internal investigations involving all aspects of alleged corporate misconduct. He frequently represents public companies, boards of directors and senior executives in internal investigations as well as investigations and enforcement actions by various federal, state and local regulators and prosecutors.

Select past representations include:

• a major publicly traded insurance company in an SEC investigation into financial reporting and disclosure issues that was terminated without any enforcement action against our client;
• a financial services company in multiple SEC and DOJ investigations, all of which were terminated without any charges against our client;
• an investment bank in a years-long SEC investigation into compliance and failure to supervise issues that was terminated without any enforcement action against our client;
• the founder, chairman and CEO of a publicly traded sportswear company in DOJ and SEC investigations into financial reporting and accounting issues that was terminated without any charges against our client;
• a publicly traded manufacturing company in the first “rounding up” accounting fraud investigation conducted by the SEC and related litigation;
• a publicly traded company in an SEC investigation into allegations of accounting fraud;
• a private equity company in an SEC investigation into alleged disclosure violations;
• a publicly traded company in a DOJ investigation into allegations of various cyber crimes;
• a publicly traded natural gas company in an FCPA investigation conducted by the SEC;
• a global financial institution in an FCPA investigation conducted by the SEC;
• a publicly traded natural gas company in an internal investigation of allegations of improper financial reporting and disclosure violations;
• a publicly traded oil and gas company in an internal investigation into allegations of accounting fraud;
• a major sports league in internal investigations into various allegations of misconduct;
• the board of directors of a publicly traded telecommunications company in an internal investigation into alleged misconduct by a senior executive;
• the audit committee of a publicly traded company in an internal investigation into allegations of improper financial reporting and disclosure violations;
• the audit committee of a major insurance company in an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct by a senior executive and financial reporting issues;
• a former high-ranking U.S. government official in an SEC insider trading investigation that terminated without any enforcement action against our client; and
• a former chairman of a Fortune 100 company in years-long DOJ and SEC insider trading investigations that terminated without any charges against our client.

A seasoned trial lawyer, Harris has tried more than 20 criminal and civil cases. He recently has been, or currently is, lead or co-lead trial counsel to, among others: Mitsubishi Corporation, Loews Corporation, MacAndrews & Forbes, the founder, CEO and chairman of Under Armour, Apple, Ligado Networks and Comtech Telecommunications. Harris also has substantial appellate experience and has argued more than a dozen appeals before various federal circuit courts.

Harris previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was Chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit and, before that, Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Unit. During that time, he supervised hundreds of investigations and dozens of criminal trials.

Harris is a frequent speaker on issues related to trial practice, regulatory enforcement proceedings and internal investigations. He regularly guest-lectures at various law schools and recently taught a seminar at NYU School of Law. Harris also writes a regular column for Law360 on SEC regulatory developments and publishes frequent legal analyses in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

Following law school graduation, Harris worked at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where he worked on the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, for attempted genocide and other war crimes. 

Harris is a David Rockefeller Fellow, a program sponsored by the Partnership for the City of New York that prepares senior executives for leadership in civic and public affairs.