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Martin J. Weinstein is a partner in Cadwalader’s Global Litigation Group and leads the firm’s global Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement practice. His practice focuses on investigations, compliance and enforcement actions covering virtually every type of financial fraud in almost every industry, spanning more than 60 countries. With more than 30 years of experience, Martin is regularly named among the top legal strategists in government enforcement and is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), having been called as an expert witness on a number of occasions dealing with issues related to FCPA enforcement and compliance. He is described as “one of the deans of the FCPA regulatory Bar” by Chambers USA (2021) and has defended many of the biggest public FCPA cases in history, representing major global corporations including Lucent, Daimler, Tyco, Teva, Juniper Networks, Alcatel, and Titan, as well as many more investigations which were never public.
Recommended in both Chambers USA and Chambers Global every year since 2007, clients say Martin is “very responsive, enormously practical, and has a lot of credibility with the regulators,” and is “very strong at helping navigate blind spots and pressing issues especially in overseas jurisdictions." They praise him for being “a tenacious advocate” and “very effective,” noting he is “fabulous at strategizing and is very personable and very client-oriented.” He is also described as “an incredibly passionate defender of the company and provides outstanding attention to the client, the needs of the case, and the dynamics of the client's company.”
Martin is frequently commended for his legal counsel and was recognized as a Finalist in Compliance Week’s Excellence in Compliance Awards 2020. He was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics,” and one of the “Attorneys Who Matter” by Ethisphere Magazine seven years in a row. In 2023 and 2024, he was recognized by Lawdragon as one of the “500 Leading Global Litigators” and is also recognized as one of the "500 Leading Litigators in America". Martin is co-author of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Compliance, Investigations and Enforcement, the comprehensive practitioner’s book covering all aspects of the FCPA.
Martin represents corporations, organizations, and executives in a wide variety of sensitive compliance and white-collar matters, including bribery and corruption, insider trading, fraud, whistleblowing, healthcare fraud linked to the Anti-Kickback Statute and money laundering. He regularly designs and benchmarks corporate compliance programs, conducts internal investigations worldwide, and counsels on a variety of foreign business practices involving export controls and related matters. Martin also counsels on corporate transactions across every industry.
Martin has led many complex high-stakes investigations and multijurisdictional enforcement defenses; he has tried more than 40 cases and argued more than a dozen appeals. He has also been involved in a broad range of Congressional inquiries including investigations into campaign finance, international banking practices and complex global trade disputes. His experience is broad, having covered everything from negotiating sensitive matters with foreign leaders to representing the Commissioner of Major League Baseball in the Pete Rose investigation.
Martin is very active in community affairs, ranging from service in higher education and philanthropic foundations to underserved youth and environmental causes. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation and sits on Dartmouth College’s Presidential Leadership Council. Recently, he served as co-chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 2022 National Tribute Dinner and was a founder of the Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP Greater DC Community Foundation. In addition, Martin was previously Chairman of the Board of the Community Foundation for Greater Washington as well as Chair of the Trustee/Governance Committee of the Board of the Landon School for Boys.
Martin received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College. He was a trial attorney in the Tax Division at the Department of Justice before serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Martin is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Georgia.
