An Administration Update on the New Regulatory and Enforcement Landscape

Cristy Irvin Phillips is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Check Technologies, a provider of API-driven payroll software and related services.

Prior to joining Check, Cristy was the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Litigation at 1/0 Capital, a venture capital fund and start-up incubator, where she acted as in-house counsel to the fund and its portfolio of early and late-stage fintech start-ups. Cristy also spent 9 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she served as Deputy Chief of the Civil Frauds Unit, investigating and prosecuting fraud in industries including financial services and health care. Prior to that, Cristy practiced commercial litigation and served as law clerk to the Honorable Richard M. Berman, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

Cristy holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. with Highest Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jacquelyn M. Kasulis joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in January 2008, and was appointed Acting U.S. Attorney in June 2021. She has investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of criminal matters, including market manipulation, fraud involving publicly-traded companies, investment adviser fraud, money laundering and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Bank Secrecy Act.

During her time in the Office, Jacquelyn has worked on significant white collar cases. For example, Jacquelyn was the lead prosecutor in U.S. v. Martin Shkreli, in which Martin Shkreli was convicted in August 2017 of multiple counts of securities fraud. Jacquelyn also led the Office's prosecution in U.S. v. Low Taek Jho, et al. and U.S. v. Leissner, in which two former bankers and a wealthy Malaysian financier were charged for their participation in a multi-billion dollar money laundering and bribery conspiracy related to 1MDB, Malaysia's investment development fund. In October 2020, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $2.9 billion in penalties as part of a global resolution with eight different foreign and domestic authorities for its role in the scheme. Jacquelyn was also the lead prosecuter in U.S. v. Bandfield, et al., in which nine defendants and six corporations, including three brokerage forms, were charged for their involvement in an elaborate $250 million offshore securities fraud, money laundering and tax evasion scheme.

Prior to joining the Office, Jacquelyn was a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York. She graduated with honors from Columbia Law School in 2003.

Amanda Kramer represents corporations and individuals in sensitive, high-stakes government investigations and enforcement actions, white collar criminal defense matters, internal investigations, and workplace culture reviews.

Amanda joined the firm in 2019 after serving as Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) for more than 11 years. As a senior member of SDNY’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, Amanda investigated, prosecuted, and tried several high-profile, complex white collar cases, including those involving securities fraud, insider trading, investment advisor fraud, accounting fraud, honest services fraud, wire fraud, and health care fraud, and coordinated parallel civil enforcement proceedings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a federal prosecutor, she also investigated and prosecuted international and domestic money-laundering, public corruption, tax fraud, obstruction of justice, IEEPA violations, art fraud, and cyber crime, among other offenses. Before focusing on securities fraud and other white collar crimes, she served as SDNY’s Human Trafficking and Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, where she developed and significantly expanded SDNY’s work on trafficking and sexual misconduct issues, conducted numerous domestic and international trainings, supervised dozens of prosecutors, and led some of the SDNY’s most sensitive cases. In addition to her other responsibilities, for the last four years of her tenure as a federal prosecutor, Amanda was entrusted with conducting trial advocacy training for all new AUSAs in the SDNY’s Criminal Division.

Amanda’s extensive litigation experience includes leading twelve federal criminal jury trials and briefing and arguing numerous appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Julia Hanft is General Counsel for Transit Wireless, LLC, a leading 5G communications infrastructure provider. In her role as General Counsel, Julia manages all legal matters for the company including drafting and negotiating commercial contracts; compliance; advising on regulatory, safety, and quality issues; and managing employment law issues. Julia also manages Procurement and Government Relations for the company and provides support on M&A activities of Transit Wireless’s majority shareholder, BAI Communications.

Prior to joining Transit Wireless, Julia was EVP & General Counsel for Globecomm Systems Inc., where she managed all legal matters for Globecomm’s worldwide satellite communications services business. Julia is also the founding partner of The Law Offices of Julia Hanft, where she provides advise to small and medium sized businesses.

Julia graduated magna cum laude from Georgia State University College of Law and received her Bachelor of Sciene degree in Business and Management, with distinction, from University of Redlands.

Julia is an active fundraiser for various charitable organizations and enjoys organizing fun events such as mock baby showers, cupcake contests, and pancake breakfasts, to raise money and donations for local charities.