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Partner / Practice Group Leader, Government Investigations & White Collar Defense
I'm a 2023 Nixon Peabody Pro Bono Champion.Read more about our Pro Bono program
Rob Fisher is an accomplished trial lawyer and legal advisor who represents clients facing bet-the-company government investigations or charges brought by agencies such as the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the various state attorneys general. He also serves as the practice group leader for the firm’s Government Investigations & White Collar Defense practice.
Rob served as an Assistant United States Attorney for almost a decade and during that time handled some of the federal district’s most complex and high-profile white-collar fraud cases. He has received numerous awards for his work as a federal prosecutor including the U.S. Department of Justice Director’s Award. Rob has been retained as an expert witness in two matters regarding the management and defense of government and regulatory investigations and was also nominated by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve as a member of the Commonwealth’s Task Force on the Preservation of Evidence. Rob has successfully defended corporate and individual clients facing almost all variations of federal white-collar offenses. Based upon his work as a defense attorney and prosecutor, Rob has been interviewed by Anderson Cooper for CBS’s 60 Minutes, has been featured in two Netflix documentaries, and is frequently quoted in numerous national publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the Boston Globe. In fall 2022, Rob was recognized by Boston University School of Law, in honor of its 150th anniversary, as one of the 150 people, places, and events that have made an impact on the law school and the world.
I utilize my experience as a former federal prosecutor and state assistant attorney general to represent companies, boards of directors, and individuals in internal investigations or enforcement actions by any of the various state and federal agencies or United States Attorneys’ Offices. I’ve served as lead trial counsel in dozens of state and federal trials and successfully handled appeals before the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. I have also represented FINRA in lengthy hearings before that regulator’s Office of Hearing Officers.
I am a former Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General and spent nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor for the United States Attorney’s Office in Boston with much of this time as a member of the Public Corruption and Special Investigations Unit. In this role, I led dozens of grand jury investigations and handled the prosecution of a broad range of sophisticated, high-profile, white-collar federal cases involving federal program bribery, healthcare fraud, international trade violations, embezzlement, identity theft, extortion, obstruction of justice, money laundering, RICO conspiracies, and mail and wire fraud. I have conducted trainings for the FBI and other federal and foreign law enforcement agencies and traveled with the FBI to Europe while conducting training regarding bribery and corruption for European law enforcement officials.
My experience as a former prosecutor provides me a unique perspective when assisting my clients with government investigations and regulatory matters, including subpoenas by federal or state agencies, internal corporate investigations, criminal and civil enforcement proceedings, and defense of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases.
I also help clients resolve complex securities and compliance matters, including securities fraud, stock manipulation, insider trading, conversion of investor funds, mail and wire fraud, tax fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.
Prior to joining the firm, I served as a senior litigation counsel for FINRA. I handled some of the regulatory authority’s most significant cases involving violations of federal securities laws and ethical rules. I also represented FINRA in disciplinary hearings and settlement negotiations.
I leverage my background and understanding of the financial regulatory landscape to help my clients navigate federal security laws and industry rules and regulations.
The federal government, state governments, and various regulators will continue to be aggressive in the areas of financial fraud, money laundering, healthcare fraud, corporate or white-collar misconduct, and public and private corruption, including the investigation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. In the current highly regulated environment, businesses and individuals should be cognizant of their compliance and due diligence responsibilities and, if and when there are investigations or violations, it is important that they receive strategic advice and counsel from lawyers that know firsthand how these agencies and regulators investigate and prosecute cases.
Boston partner and Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice leader Rob Fisher provides third-party comments in this article covering a case that alleges 18 former NBA players and six additional defendants defrauded the league’s healthcare plan. Rob notes that a time-served sentencing floor can be helpful for the defense in a case with a large number of defendants, recalling a similar phenomenon in the college admissions case when his client, former Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer, avoided prison in the case’s first sentencing.
Boston partner and Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice leader Rob Fisher provides third-party commentary in this article covering the upcoming hacking and insider trading trial of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin, who is accused of hacking into the servers of two vendors used by publicly traded companies to make SEC filings. Rob discusses the rarity of this kind of insider trading case and why such cases can be difficult to prove.
This article covering developments following the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, President Biden’s University of Pennsylvania think tank, quotes Boston partner and Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice leader Rob Fisher on the seriousness of the issue.
In this article covering a trade secrets and export controls case against chipmaker Haoyang Yu, Boston partner Rob Fisher, leader of the firm’s Government Investigations and White-Collar Defense practice, provides third-party comments related to the downfall of the Justice Department’s China Initiative. The article mention’s Rob’s successful defense of MIT professor Gang Chen.
This article covering the dismissal or acquittal of several cases stemming from the DOJ’s previous “China Initiative” quotes Boston partner and Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense leader Rob Fisher. Rob is quoted with respect to client and MIT professor Gang Chen—whose case was dismissed—noting the lack of clarity from the Department of Energy whether Chen’s affiliation with Chinese government institutions needed to be reported on grant applications.
Boston partner Rob Fisher, leader of the firm’s Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice, provides third-party commentary throughout this article, which covers the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial beginning this week in Manhattan.
Boston partner Rob Fisher, leader of the firm’s Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice, provides third-party commentary in this article, which fact checks a claim made by former President Donald Trump comparing the FBI raid of his home in Mar-a-Lago to the mishandling of computer data under former President George H.W. Bush. Rob explains why it’s difficult to make the comparison, noting changes in how the federal government handles electronic records versus the hard copy material found in Mar-a-Lago.
In this article, Boston partner Rob Fisher, leader of the firm’s Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice, provides third-party commentary on conflict issues that could arise in special master Raymond Dearie’s investigation into the seizure of classified documents from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, due to Dearie’s past involvement in the FISA investigation of former Trump advisor Carter Page.
Boston partner Rob Fisher, leader of the firm’s Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice, is quoted in this article on the recent transport of large groups of migrants by the governors of Florida and Texas to Martha’s Vineyard and outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington, DC home. Rob discusses the potential legal repercussions and possible federal prosecution hurdles that may arise.
Boston partner Rob Fisher, leader of the firm’s Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice, is quoted in this article analyzing a post-trial decision to throw out tax and fraud charges against the former mayor of Fall River, MA, and what it could mean when his corruption conviction goes before the First Circuit this week. Rob, who represented a business owner who testified against the former mayor, explains how the dismissal could ultimately help preserve the conviction.
This article focuses on the arrival of Boston government investigations and white collar defense counsel Rob Fisher to Nixon Peabody, highlighting his experience as a former federal prosecutor.
Boston government investigations and white collar defense counsel Robert Fisher is quoted in this article discussing how modern-day forensic analysis could be the key in solving the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft that took place 27 years ago.
Massachusetts
Boston University School of Law, J.D.
Northeastern University, B.S., magna cum laude, University Honors Program
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