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Jodi Avergun is Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice and a noted expert in Anti-Corruption, Anti-Money Laundering and Economic Sanctions laws as well as regulated substances law. Her practice focuses on representing corporations and individuals in criminal and regulatory matters involving, among other things, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities enforcement, health care, and general white collar matters. Jodi has successfully represented both companies and senior executives in internal investigations, matters before regulatory bodies including the SEC and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and in civil and criminal matters in federal court.
She is the former Chief of the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section of DOJ’s Criminal Division and the former Chief of Staff of the DEA. She is also a former federal prosecutor, having been an AUSA in the Eastern District of New York for more than a decade. She advises clients in the burgeoning legal cannabis space, particularly as it relates to banking and financial transactions, and represents companies and individuals in cases involving both traditional and unusual applications of the Controlled Substances Act. She counts among her clients companies throughout the entire supply chain, as well as private equity firms that invest in the pharmaceutical space. She successfully represented the employees of FedEx in grand jury investigations and at trial, as well as the clubs of the NFL in CSA-related matters, and is the first independent reviewer appointed to oversee a CSA settlement. She has written and lectured widely on all aspects of controlled substance law, and is a regular speaker and commentator at business seminars and conferences.
Super Lawyers magazine has consistently recognized Jodi as a leading white collar defense lawyer in Washington, D.C., since 2016, and in 2023 it named her one of the top 50 women defense attorneys in Washington, D.C. She has also been recognized among the top 30 “White Collar Crime” practitioners in the Euromoney Expert Guides 2021 edition of the Best of the Best USA and in Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World's Leading Women in Business Law. She contributed to the leading treatise on corporate investigations, co-authoring a chapter titled “Internal Investigations: The US Perspective” in Global Investigations Review’s “The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations,” which is published yearly. Jodi also authored a chapter titled “Monitorships in the Pharmaceutical Industry” in the “Guide to Monitorships,” published by Global Investigations Review. In 2022, she was added to the inaugural “Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America” guide and awarded the same recognition again by Lawdragon for the 2024 and 2025 guides. Jodi was also included in the 2024 and 2025 editions of The Best Lawyers in America for Criminal Defense: White-Collar.
Jodi is a graduate of Brown University and a graduate, magna cum laude, of Brooklyn Law School, where she was an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review. Jodi is a member of the Bars of the District of Columbia, New York State, and New Jersey and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various other federal circuit and district courts, including the Second Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the District of the District of Columbia, and the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
