Richard Smith

Richard is a versatile and highly experienced lawyer, a seasoned white-collar defense attorney and a well-regarded trial lawyer. His practice focuses on complex litigation, white collar criminal defense, due diligence, risk assessment, corporate governance, creation and review of anti-corruption policies and procedures, antitrust and competition, and U.S.-centric and transnational corporate internal investigations for public and private companies. 

Richard has extensive experience representing corporate entities, their executives and employees in connection with grand jury investigations, civil and criminal trials and hearings, transnational regulatory investigation and enforcement proceedings, federal and state criminal prosecutions and criminal antitrust investigations and prosecutions. He also has experience representing in such civil matters as breach of contracts, tortious interference of business relationships, business conspiracy, fraud, and criminal conversion.

Richard has conducted many internal investigations into alleged violations of the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other violations of law for corporate entities and negotiated the largest FCPA settlement to date. He has represented senior executives in criminal and civil FCPA investigations being conducted jointly by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Fraud section and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Richard has experience defending civil RICO cases.

Before joining Linklaters, Richard gained considerable practice both in private practice and for the government. He was the Principal Deputy Chief for Litigation of the Fraud Section of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Criminal Division where he supervised the litigation activities of all trial attorneys in the investigation, indictment, and trial of criminal cases, including FCPA matters. He tried over 25 jury trials in federal court as well as 50 state courts trials.

While at the DOJ, Richard tried the first cases prosecuted under the Sarbanes-Oxley statute and was instrumental in executing a new strategy to investigate and prosecute corporate fraud matters. For five consecutive years, Richard received the "Special Achievement Award" recognizing his work at the DOJ.

He previously worked for six years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Texas, where he conducted long-term grand jury investigations, prosecuted and tried numerous complex white collar and public corruption cases, and successfully argued four cases before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He began his career trying criminal cases as an assistant state attorney in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Richard has conducted internal investigations into alleged violations of the FCPA and other violations of law for corporate entities.