Holland & Hart Expands D.C. Office

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 20, 2015) – Holland & Hart announced today an expansion of its strategic plan to deliver world class services in export controls, trade sanctions, governmental investigations, and white collar criminal defense with the addition of Michael J. O’Leary to its Washington, D.C. office. O’Leary joins a team of sophisticated practitioners with substantial government and private practice experience.

O’Leary has extensive experience on both sides of white collar criminal investigations. As an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, he prosecuted a wide range of federal fraud cases ranging from money laundering to bank, Medicare, and mail/wire fraud. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he tried 16 jury trials to verdict in U.S. District Court and argued two cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In over six years of private practice, O’Leary defended multinational corporations and executives in a number of complex civil litigation matters and criminal investigations involving securities fraud, tax-related offenses, economic espionage, and the alleged manipulation of global benchmark exchange and interest rates. Most recently, he represented multiple Swiss banks in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ[’s]”) Program for Non-Prosecution Agreements or Non-Target Letters for Swiss Banks. Prior to his work as an AUSA, O’Leary served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Cecilia M. Altonaga, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida.

“Michael is a great addition to our growing team, and we expect to continue to add firepower for our clients in 2015,” said J. Triplett Mackintosh, who heads the Export Control, Sanctions and White Collar practice from the firm’s Denver headquarters. For the last three years, Mackintosh has been the only attorney outside of Washington, D.C. to be nationally ranked by Chambers USA for International Trade: Export Controls and Economic Sanctions practice areas. During that time, Holland & Hart has been bolstering its D.C. ranks with experienced practitioners, including:

Steven W. Pelak, former Export Control/Sanctions Enforcement and Counterespionage Official for the U.S. DOJ, joined the team in June of 2013. As the DOJ’s first National Export Control/Sanctions Coordinator and principal lawyer overseeing all export control and embargo investigations and prosecutions, for six years he supervised complex investigations and prosecutions of violations of U.S. export controls, including country-specific sanctions programs, embargoes, and controls on dual-use and military technologies. Pelak has been at the forefront of significant prosecutions and important developments in trade sanctions law, enhancing programs and training of DOJ, DHS, FBI, and other agencies with key export control enforcement responsibilities. Prior to his position at the DOJ, Pelak served 18 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, including work involving public corruption, bribery, and fraud investigations and prosecutions. 

Jeremy Paner joined the team in August of 2014. Paner is a seasoned litigator with expertise investigating and defending domestic and international economic sanctions of U.S. Treasury Department regulations. He has handled matters arising under the Bank Secrecy Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the financial-related sanctions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Prior to joining Holland & Hart, Paner was appointed as an independent monitor by the New York State Department of Financial Services with responsibility for oversight of the anti-money laundering and economic sanctions compliance program.

“The office is booming. The momentum of the past two years is remarkable and very gratifying,” said Thomas C. Jensen, newly named D.C. Administrative Partner, and a nationally known natural resources and environmental lawyer. “We’ve always been strong in the environment, energy, natural resources, and infrastructure development areas, and now have added a comprehensive export controls, trade sanctions, white collar, and government investigations capacity.”  Jensen added, “We see more growth in these premier firm practice areas, and also anticipate adding to our governmental contracts capability to complement our practice firm-wide. We regularly go toe-to-toe with international law firms for clients and colleagues, and are doing very well. We are able to provide tremendous value to our clients because of our highly competitive fee structure, and offer a wonderful professional culture for our lawyers and other professionals. The business model is very strong, and contrasts well with those firms struggling to stand out in the market and cope with the profound changes in the business.”