This past year the white-collar team at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton helped medical equipment company Pacific Pulmonary Services navigate parallel criminal and civil False Claims Act investigations, won dismissal of a qui tam suit against Accident Fire Insurance Co. of America at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Second Circuit, and got the Ninth Circuit to affirm a qui tam win for Wells Fargo Bank. Charles Kreindler and Raymond Marshall, co-team leaders of the firm's white-collar defense and corporate investigations team, recently told The Recorder about the firm's approach to white-collar cases and internal investigations.

What do each of these matters that the firm is being recognized for demonstrate about the firm's white-collar capacities? These matters are examples of the great breadth of white-collar work that we do and they also demonstrate that there is no white-collar case that we can't handle. Many firms specialize in either small or large cases. We are well equipped to handle a variety of cases with our tremendous experience, national and international locations, and vast subject matter expertise.

Our attorneys aggressively defend corporations and their employees in high-stakes litigation involving charges of business crime, securities fraud, false claims, computer crime and theft of trade secrets, health care fraud and abuse and environmental crimes. We represent clients from a broad cross section of industries and our counsel ranges from internal investigations, regulatory compliance, investigations and grand jury proceedings to trial.

What would you say is the trait of your litigators and your litigation department that keeps clients coming back—especially when they face criminal investigations and parallel civil claims? Client service. We pride ourselves on being attentive to the needs of our clients and the business pressures they face. Clients describe us as fiercely loyal and always having their backs. We achieve results in both criminal and civil arenas and handle cases under pressure when clients face enforcement issues.

A prospective client with a crisis calls and asks why your team should be retained. What is your answer? Sheppard Mullin is on call 24-7 to help clients when a crisis hits. Whether it's a criminal inquiry, a breach of your cybersecurity, a high-profile Congressional investigation, a sensitive agency review or a media feeding frenzy, we have the skills and the background to help you weather the storm.

Drawing on extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, we partner with clients to respond to the crisis quickly, intelligently and comprehensively, integrating the legal, public relations, government relations, and marketing aspects of the event. We handle high-pressure civil litigation matters that arise from crisis situations, interface and negotiate with regulators, lawmakers and private parties, prepare principals for testimony, advise on public relations strategies aimed to minimize or avert reputational damage, and provide counsel on emergency response plans and pre-crisis procedural protocols. We also handle responses to both civil and criminal investigations and reach settlements with federal, state and local officials.

What is the firm doing to train up the next generation litigators in your ranks? To complement the practical experience gained as working professionals, we offer our litigation lawyers a wide range of training programs to develop their skills and help them grow as practitioners. For example, litigation associates in their first year are invited to attend our New Lawyer Academy, where they receive an introduction to various aspects of the firm as well as an intensive walk-through of core curriculum sessions designed to give substantive knowledge and skills across a broad array of fundamental substantive practice areas.

The firm also holds annually for its summer associates a week-long Trial Advocacy Program (TAP), an intensive introduction to all phases of a trial taught by partners and senior associates from across the firm. And we hold, in alternating years, a Midlevel Associate Retreat and Partnership College to prepare associates for the practice challenges and expectations for these career stages. In addition to annual events, Sheppard Mullin offers regular in-house training programs, both practice group specific and general skills development. And beyond the firm, we encourage attorneys to engage with and learn from the legal community at large by taking on pro bono cases where they can gain hands-on litigation experience and to attend a range of external training programs and conferences.

How is your department harnessing technology to work more efficiently? Sheppard Mullin is a leader in the use of legal technology. Every decision the firm makes in support of technological advancement is aimed at providing increased efficiency and greater service. The firm is committed to using technology to increase productivity and reduce costs for our clients.

We have advanced software tools to ensure confidentiality, a document management system to capture work product in an efficient and fully searchable method, and an intranet portal for practice specific repositories of work product. We pride ourselves on our forward thinking and flexibility when it comes to partnering with our clients using our technology, or collaborating to use theirs, when appropriate.