William Schwartz

Bill has been a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 2000. He is a former member of Cooley’s compensation and management committees, as well as the former chair of the firm’s white collar defense & investigations group.

Bill practices in the areas of white collar criminal defense and complex commercial litigation. He has represented numerous corporations and individuals in state and federal grand jury investigations and at trial throughout the US, and before regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Among the many criminal or regulatory matters in which he has had significant representations are those involving FIFA (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and commercial bribery), Guinea iron mining (foreign corrupt practices), BNP Paribas (trade sanctions violations), Global FX (securities fraud), Refco (securities fraud), Kazakhoil (foreign corrupt practices), the New York state Comptroller’s Office (state securities fraud), Christie’s and Sotheby’s (price fixing), Tollman-Hundley Hotels (tax and bank fraud), Mitsubishi Corporation/carbon electrodes (price fixing), AOL Time Warner (securities fraud), “Iraq-gate” (bank fraud), Con Edison (criminal environmental violations), Gitano (customs fraud), GAF (securities fraud) and Drexel (securities fraud).

Bill also has conducted countless internal investigations for corporations and audit committees and advised those entities on the implications of the findings. In his civil practice, Bill has handled virtually every kind of complex commercial dispute, in state and federal courts, as well as before US and international arbitration panels, for clients ranging from international finance firms to large domestic and non-US public companies and conglomerates to privately held corporations. A particular focus of his practice has been the representation of major law firms in cases involving allegations of malpractice or fraud, and in partnership disputes.

Before joining Cooley, Bill served as assistant US attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he was deputy chief of the office’s criminal division. During his tenure, Bill successfully tried a number of major white collar cases, including United States v. Stanley Friedman, RICO prosecution of a Bronx Democratic leader and city officials.

Following graduation from law school, Bill clerked for the US District Judge Marvin E. Frankel and the US District Judge Abraham D. Sofaer, both of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Bill has been recognized by Chambers USA, New York Magazine’s The New York Area’s Best Lawyers list, The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, The Legal 500, Benchmark Litigation legal guide, The Best Lawyers in America and New York Super Lawyers.