Attorney, Arguedas, Cassman & Headley, LLP
Ms. Arguedas is recognized as one of the finest criminal defense lawyers in the United States. In her 20-plus years in private practice, she has represented high-profile clients in some of the most visible cases around the country, as well as many little-known clients on relatively routine matters that never make the nightly news.
Ms. Arguedas is equally adept at handling complex white-collar cases, sensational murders, and the full range of less serious criminal cases. She works closely with other ACH lawyers as well as a team of investigators, jury consultants and other top experts she has assembled over more than two decades.
Singled out for her thorough preparation, shrewd strategizing, and impressive courtroom skills, Cris has been named the lawyer other lawyers would hire if they got arrested (California Lawyer), one of the 10 best lawyers in the Bay Area (San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California Super Lawyers), one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in the United States (National Law Journal), one of the 100 top lawyers in California (San Francisco Daily Journal, The Recorder), and one of the five most promising women lawyers in the country (Time). She was named to “The International Who’s Who of Business Crime Lawyers 2010”, is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and in 2010 was inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California (an honor shared by only 20 other attorneys in the State).
Ms. Arguedas expertise also makes her a highly sought-after lecturer, teacher, and advisor to public officials in both major parties. She has served on advisory committees for the District Attorney of San Francisco and for the current and two past United States Attorneys for the Northern District of California. At the statewide level, she has been appointed to several commissions on judicial standards by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Cris has also headed U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s Federal Judicial Selection Committee, which recommends nominees for the federal judiciary and for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.
Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, The United States Department of Justice
Leslie R. Caldwell was confirmed as the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division on May 15, 2014.
As head of the Criminal Division, Ms. Caldwell oversees nearly 600 attorneys who prosecute federal criminal cases across the country, help develop criminal law and formulate criminal enforcement policy. She also works closely with the nation’s 93 United States Attorneys in the investigation and prosecution of criminal matters in their districts.
Ms. Caldwell has dedicated most of her professional career to handling federal criminal cases, both as a prosecutor and as defense counsel. From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Caldwell served as the director of the Justice Department’s Enron Task Force. When she worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California from 1999 to 2002, she served as the Chief of the Criminal Division and the Chief of the Securities Fraud Section. During her eleven years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York from 1987 to 1998, her positions included Senior Trial Counsel for the Business & Securities Fraud Section and Chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Section. For her work on the Enron Task Force, Ms. Caldwell received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service. She is also the recipient of the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation and the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention.
Prior to joining the Criminal Division, Ms. Caldwell was a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, a position she held since 2004. From 2004 to 2009, Ms. Caldwell was co-chair of the firm’s Corporate Investigations and White Collar Practice Group.
Ms. Caldwell received a B.A. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Partner, McGuireWoods
Mr. Hatch is a partner in the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Litigation group. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Mr. Hatch spent nine years as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office, serving in the Alexandria, Richmond and Norfolk divisions of the Eastern District of Virginia. Most recently, Ben served as the Managing Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) and Criminal Chief in the Norfolk Division.
During his time as an AUSA, Mr. Hatch successfully argued nine appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and conducted thirteen jury trials and two bench trials in the Norfolk, Alexandria and Richmond Divisions.
Mr. Hatch's work involved a diverse array of criminal cases, including prosecuting complex national security matters, white collar, public corruption and violent crime. Mr. Hatch received The John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation, one of the highest awards given for trial practice by the Department of Justice, from then Attorney General Eric Holder for his role in a two month trial of several Somali pirates.
Mr. Hatch previously served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School. At Harvard, Mr. Hatch served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He was also part of a team that won Harvard Law School's Ames Moot Court Competition, and Ben received the George Leisure Award for being recognized as the best oralist.
For the last six years, Mr. Hatch has served as an Adjunct Professor teaching the Advanced Brief Writing class at the College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law.
Partner, King & Spalding
John Richter is a trial and investigations partner in the Special Matters and Investigations Practice Group, and represents and defends companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate.
Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP
Joseph Savage, a partner in Goodwin's Securities Litigation & White Collar Defense Group, concentrates his practice on white collar criminal defense, governmental investigations work and complex civil litigation. His practice involves representing individuals and companies in a wide variety of fraud, false claims act, securities, health care, tax, public corruption, environmental and other investigations by federal, state and local law enforcement and government regulators, as well as representing companies and individuals in civil litigation, especially complex commercial disputes.
With more than 30 years’ experience, Mr. Savage is one of the most widely respected and accomplished trial lawyers in the nation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is annually recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and U.S. News-Best Lawyers, which named him Boston white collar “Lawyer of the Year” for 2017.
Freelance Journalist and Author
Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a Washington writer focusing on legal and policy issues and a National Journal contributing editor. He occasionally practices law.
Taylor has coauthored three books. All have been acclaimed by commentators across the ideological spectrum. In January 2017, KC Johnson and Taylor authored The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities. In 2012, Richard Sander and Taylor authored Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. In 2007, Taylor and Johnson authored Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Fraud. Sander and Taylor have also filed amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving admissions preferences.
Since 1980, Taylor has done reporting and commentary about issues ranging from the biggest Supreme Court cases to race, voting rights, mindlessly excessive criminal penalties, guilt-presuming campus rape processes, journalistic bias, the death penalty, war powers, gerrymandering, guns, polarization, civil liberties, national security, torture, campaign finance, education, impeachment, and other issues. He has often been called one of the nation's best legal journalists and is known for challenging both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom.
Taylor was a reporter for The New York Times from 1980-1988, covering legal affairs and then the Supreme Court. He wrote commentaries and long features for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and their affiliates from 1989-1997, and for National Journal and Newsweek from 1998 through 2010. He has written (less often) on a freelance basis for numerous publications since 2010. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The New York Daily News and longer commentaries for RealClearPolitics, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the (late) Weekly Standard, National Review, Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, Time and other magazines. He has been interviewed on all major television and radio networks. He taught “Law and the News Media” at Stanford Law School in 2011 and 2012 and practices law on occasion.
Taylor graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and Sun from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, was a Harvard Law Review note editor, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class, with high honors. He also won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and traveled around the world in 1977-1978 while studying freedom of the press in the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Taylor practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, in Washington, D.C., from 1977-1980 before returning to journalism in 1980 by joining the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
Taylor's journalism honors include the 2009 Northern California Innocence Project Media Award for his work on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud; a 2002 National Headliner Award for best special magazine column on one subject; and a share of The American Lawyer’s National Magazine Award for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war. He was a National Magazine Award finalist in 1993 and 1997 and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
Attorney, Arguedas, Cassman & Headley, LLP
Ms. Arguedas is recognized as one of the finest criminal defense lawyers in the United States. In her 20-plus years in private practice, she has represented high-profile clients in some of the most visible cases around the country, as well as many little-known clients on relatively routine matters that never make the nightly news.
Ms. Arguedas is equally adept at handling complex white-collar cases, sensational murders, and the full range of less serious criminal cases. She works closely with other ACH lawyers as well as a team of investigators, jury consultants and other top experts she has assembled over more than two decades.
Singled out for her thorough preparation, shrewd strategizing, and impressive courtroom skills, Cris has been named the lawyer other lawyers would hire if they got arrested (California Lawyer), one of the 10 best lawyers in the Bay Area (San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California Super Lawyers), one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in the United States (National Law Journal), one of the 100 top lawyers in California (San Francisco Daily Journal, The Recorder), and one of the five most promising women lawyers in the country (Time). She was named to “The International Who’s Who of Business Crime Lawyers 2010”, is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and in 2010 was inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California (an honor shared by only 20 other attorneys in the State).
Ms. Arguedas expertise also makes her a highly sought-after lecturer, teacher, and advisor to public officials in both major parties. She has served on advisory committees for the District Attorney of San Francisco and for the current and two past United States Attorneys for the Northern District of California. At the statewide level, she has been appointed to several commissions on judicial standards by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Cris has also headed U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s Federal Judicial Selection Committee, which recommends nominees for the federal judiciary and for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.
Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, The United States Department of Justice
Leslie R. Caldwell was confirmed as the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division on May 15, 2014.
As head of the Criminal Division, Ms. Caldwell oversees nearly 600 attorneys who prosecute federal criminal cases across the country, help develop criminal law and formulate criminal enforcement policy. She also works closely with the nation’s 93 United States Attorneys in the investigation and prosecution of criminal matters in their districts.
Ms. Caldwell has dedicated most of her professional career to handling federal criminal cases, both as a prosecutor and as defense counsel. From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Caldwell served as the director of the Justice Department’s Enron Task Force. When she worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California from 1999 to 2002, she served as the Chief of the Criminal Division and the Chief of the Securities Fraud Section. During her eleven years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York from 1987 to 1998, her positions included Senior Trial Counsel for the Business & Securities Fraud Section and Chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Section. For her work on the Enron Task Force, Ms. Caldwell received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service. She is also the recipient of the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation and the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention.
Prior to joining the Criminal Division, Ms. Caldwell was a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, a position she held since 2004. From 2004 to 2009, Ms. Caldwell was co-chair of the firm’s Corporate Investigations and White Collar Practice Group.
Ms. Caldwell received a B.A. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Partner, McGuireWoods
Mr. Hatch is a partner in the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Litigation group. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Mr. Hatch spent nine years as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office, serving in the Alexandria, Richmond and Norfolk divisions of the Eastern District of Virginia. Most recently, Ben served as the Managing Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) and Criminal Chief in the Norfolk Division.
During his time as an AUSA, Mr. Hatch successfully argued nine appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and conducted thirteen jury trials and two bench trials in the Norfolk, Alexandria and Richmond Divisions.
Mr. Hatch's work involved a diverse array of criminal cases, including prosecuting complex national security matters, white collar, public corruption and violent crime. Mr. Hatch received The John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation, one of the highest awards given for trial practice by the Department of Justice, from then Attorney General Eric Holder for his role in a two month trial of several Somali pirates.
Mr. Hatch previously served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School. At Harvard, Mr. Hatch served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He was also part of a team that won Harvard Law School's Ames Moot Court Competition, and Ben received the George Leisure Award for being recognized as the best oralist.
For the last six years, Mr. Hatch has served as an Adjunct Professor teaching the Advanced Brief Writing class at the College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law.
Partner, King & Spalding
John Richter is a trial and investigations partner in the Special Matters and Investigations Practice Group, and represents and defends companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate.
Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP
Joseph Savage, a partner in Goodwin's Securities Litigation & White Collar Defense Group, concentrates his practice on white collar criminal defense, governmental investigations work and complex civil litigation. His practice involves representing individuals and companies in a wide variety of fraud, false claims act, securities, health care, tax, public corruption, environmental and other investigations by federal, state and local law enforcement and government regulators, as well as representing companies and individuals in civil litigation, especially complex commercial disputes.
With more than 30 years’ experience, Mr. Savage is one of the most widely respected and accomplished trial lawyers in the nation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is annually recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and U.S. News-Best Lawyers, which named him Boston white collar “Lawyer of the Year” for 2017.
Freelance Journalist and Author
Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a Washington writer focusing on legal and policy issues and a National Journal contributing editor. He occasionally practices law.
Taylor has coauthored three books. All have been acclaimed by commentators across the ideological spectrum. In January 2017, KC Johnson and Taylor authored The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities. In 2012, Richard Sander and Taylor authored Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. In 2007, Taylor and Johnson authored Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Fraud. Sander and Taylor have also filed amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving admissions preferences.
Since 1980, Taylor has done reporting and commentary about issues ranging from the biggest Supreme Court cases to race, voting rights, mindlessly excessive criminal penalties, guilt-presuming campus rape processes, journalistic bias, the death penalty, war powers, gerrymandering, guns, polarization, civil liberties, national security, torture, campaign finance, education, impeachment, and other issues. He has often been called one of the nation's best legal journalists and is known for challenging both liberal and conservative conventional wisdom.
Taylor was a reporter for The New York Times from 1980-1988, covering legal affairs and then the Supreme Court. He wrote commentaries and long features for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and their affiliates from 1989-1997, and for National Journal and Newsweek from 1998 through 2010. He has written (less often) on a freelance basis for numerous publications since 2010. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The New York Daily News and longer commentaries for RealClearPolitics, The Atlantic, The New Republic, the (late) Weekly Standard, National Review, Slate, The Daily Beast, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, Time and other magazines. He has been interviewed on all major television and radio networks. He taught “Law and the News Media” at Stanford Law School in 2011 and 2012 and practices law on occasion.
Taylor graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun and Sun from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, was a Harvard Law Review note editor, and graduated in 1977 at the top of his class, with high honors. He also won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship and traveled around the world in 1977-1978 while studying freedom of the press in the United Kingdom and Kenya.
Taylor practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, in Washington, D.C., from 1977-1980 before returning to journalism in 1980 by joining the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
Taylor's journalism honors include the 2009 Northern California Innocence Project Media Award for his work on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud; a 2002 National Headliner Award for best special magazine column on one subject; and a share of The American Lawyer’s National Magazine Award for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war. He was a National Magazine Award finalist in 1993 and 1997 and was nominated by The New York Times for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
The Limits of Federal Criminal Law
Cristina C. Arguedas, Leslie R. Caldwell, Benjamin L. Hatch, John C. Richter, Joseph F. Savage, Stuart S. Taylor
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
In the last year, the Department of Justice lost three major cases against Fed Ex,...
The Limits of Federal Criminal Law
Cristina C. Arguedas, Leslie R. Caldwell, Benjamin L. Hatch, John C. Richter, Joseph F. Savage, Stuart S. Taylor
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
In the last year, the Department of Justice lost three major cases against Fed Ex,...