Continuing to bolster its California presence, Winston & Strawn has added Pamela Davis, a former Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner who specializes in matters related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, to its San Francisco office.

Prior to joining Winston, Davis served as co-director of Hui Chen Ethics Consulting, where she worked with alongside Hui Chen, the DOJ's first FCPA compliance counsel, working with clients on FCPA matters. Before that, she was with Orrick for more than 13 years.

"I am joining Winston because the opportunity presented itself to join a firm that has this very large, new substantial Latin America practice, which is perfect for me," said Davis, who was already in Brazil conducting investigations during her first week with the firm. Davis started at Winston on Sept. 16.

Pamela Davis (Courtesy photo)

As a white-collar defense attorney, Davis concentrates her practice on FCPA and global investigations. Over the course of her 25 years legal career, she was appointed three times by the U.S. government to serve as an independent FCPA monitor and independent consultant.

"It's very rare within the white-collar community for someone to have served as a monitor, let alone in three different instances like Pam has, and that kind of experience is very valuable to our clients," said Robb Adkins, Winston & Strawn's San Francisco managing partner, regarding Davis' addition.

"Oftentimes we are hired by very sophisticated and well-meaning international companies," Adkins continued. "And what they want from us in many engagements is to help them improve their compliance or if something was improperly done to help them competently investigate it, and then remediate it, so that in a way that the government will view [them] as credible. So, they can move on and continue doing their business."

According to Adkins, hiring Davis aligned with Winston & Strawn's strategy to expand its white-collar and regulatory practice on the West Coast. Earlier in the month, the Chicago-based firm also brought on partner Sandra Edwards, former chairwoman of Farella Braun + Martel's environmental law department, to bolster its San Francisco litigation team.

Winston & Strawn now has close to 35 lawyers in its San Francisco office, which was created following the firm's 2003 merger with San Francisco-based Murphy Sheneman Julian & Rogers.

Davis has been practicing in the Bay area her entire legal career. Although she is based in San Francisco, Davis said often travels internationally to work with clients on global investigations and compliance matters.

"The concerns that companies have, that are in the Bay Area, are the same that companies will have around the globe," said Davis of her practice. "If you are a company that does business in a high-risk part of the world … you will potentially have FCPA risk."

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