Matt Miner, a top U.S. Justice Department official who played a key role developing policies for white-collar enforcement under the Trump administration, is returning later this month to his former law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

In two years at the Justice Department, Miner served as a top aide to the head of the criminal division and oversaw nearly 180 prosecutors handling fraud cases across the country. His tenure was marked by a number of new policies designed to incentivize companies to invest in compliance programs to prevent misconduct and to encourage voluntary disclosures of misdeeds to the Justice Department.

"Even without my affinity for the firm and familiarly with its clients, I would still have naturally been drawn to Morgan Lewis," Miner said. "It is an AmLaw 8 firm with deep roster of high-quality practices, a strong reputation in investigations and government enforcement work, and a major presence in Washington, D.C. Who wouldn't be drawn to this platform?"

A regular speaker on the conference circuit, Miner served in many instances as the public face of the criminal division, delivering speeches that trumpeted policies intended to clarify how the Justice Department determines the effectiveness of compliance programs and how it provides credit to companies that voluntarily report misconduct. Miner was a lead architect of guidance that urged prosecutors to avoid piling-on penalties in cases involving multiple regulatory agencies and to evaluate companies' claims of being unable to pay steep fines.

"To maximize our impact on the twin goals of deterrence and compliance, we need to ensure that our enforcement efforts match our enforcement message—and vice versa," Miner said in remarks last year. "This is especially important in the arena of economic crime and corporate enforcement. After all, economic crimes are motivated by economic considerations."

Miner previously spent more than five years as a partner in Morgan Lewis's white-collar defense practice. Earlier in his career, he served as a federal prosecutor in Alabama and, from 2006 to 2011, as an aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee to former U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, who went on to become President Donald Trump's first attorney general.

Miner first joined Morgan Lewis from White & Case in 2012. He resigned from the Justice Department on Dec. 31 and is set to return to Morgan Lewis' Washington office on Jan. 21, the firm said.

In an interview Thursday, Miner said he expects his practice to focus on white-collar and congressional investigations, along with offering compliance advice. He will be barred for a year from appearing before the Justice Department's criminal division.

Miner said he hopes the Justice Department will continue its push to spell out how it is approaching corporate enforcement "because policies without having that backend demonstration of the benefit can ring hollow."

"So I think that really is the long-term piece, which is for those benefits to be shown, much like in math class where you show your work," he said.

Benczkowski Brian Benczkowski testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM)

Miner's final year at the Justice Department featured major settlements resolving long-running investigations into foreign bribery.

In December, the Justice Department finalized a settlement with the Ericsson AB in which the Swedish telecommunications company agreed to pay more than $1 billion to resolve claims that it paid bribes for years to build business in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Earlier in the year, the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission reached an $850 million settlement with the Russian telecommunications firm Mobile Telesystems, a penalty that also ranked among the largest assessed in the U.S. government's enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"Matt's contributions to the white-collar program at the department cannot be overstated," Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a statement. "He was a key driver of many of the Criminal Division's operational successes during his tenure, including opioid enforcement against unscrupulous health care professionals in the Appalachian region, as well as in corporate criminal matters involving the FCPA, securities, and health care fraud."

Benczkowski said the Justice Department "will miss his thoughtful leadership and dedication to the work of the criminal division."