Rebekah Donaleski

Rebekah is head of business litigation for New York. She is a former federal prosecutor who spent nearly a decade at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), most recently as chief of the Public Corruption Unit, where she oversaw some of the most high-profile, complex matters for the Department of Justice (DOJ). Rebekah defends companies and individuals before government agencies and in high-stakes litigation, and leads internal investigations involving significant regulatory, financial or reputational risk.

Rebekah represents companies, boards, executives and public institutions in matters involving financial fraud, corruption, accounting issues, export controls, bid‑rigging and other enforcement actions led by the DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Clients turn to Rebekah for her strategic judgment, deep investigative experience and ability to navigate intense regulatory scrutiny. Chambers USA recognizes her as a leading lawyer in white‑collar defense and government investigations.

A seasoned trial lawyer, Rebekah has tried numerous federal jury trials, supervised many more and argued extensively before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

During her tenure at SDNY, Rebekah supervised a team of senior prosecutors in hundreds of white‑collar and public corruption cases, including the high‑profile prosecutions of US Sen. Robert Menendez; Sam Bankman‑Fried; Ghislaine Maxwell; Michael Avenatti; Lev Parnas; and other prominent public officials. Earlier, as a prosecutor in the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, she handled major national security matters and twice received the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Director’s Award.

Before becoming a prosecutor, Rebekah clerked for Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Rebekah’s representative matters include:

• Representing a publicly traded technology company in a fraud and antitrust investigation by the DOJ, and in a parallel internal investigation related to the bidding and procurement process for federal government contracts
• Conducting an independent investigation for a major US university regarding its response to student protests, resulting in a comprehensive and public report with actionable recommendations
• Securing dismissal of criminal charges against former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a false statements and obstruction prosecution in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• Representing a fintech startup, as well as its founder and CEO, in investigations by the DOJ and SEC, resulting in no charges
• Representing former New York City police commissioner in connection with a federal corruption investigation led by the SDNY
• Conducting an internal investigation for a publicly traded digital asset company
• Representing a professional sports team in an investigation into alleged misconduct by a star player, resulting in no finding of wrongdoing by the team or player
• Representing a public manufacturing and design company and various senior executives in connection with an SEC investigation into allegations of channel stuffing and financial fraud
• Conducting an internal investigation for a cloud security startup into allegations of fraud and mismanagement
• Representing a senior White House official in multiple DOJ special counsel investigations, resulting in no charges
• Representing a public technology and manufacturing company and employees in connection with an SEC investigation into alleged revenue manipulation and channel stuffing