Shawn G. Crowley is an experienced trial lawyer at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, handling civil, criminal, and regulatory matters for both individuals and corporations.
A highly accomplished former federal prosecutor with a successful track record in criminal and commercial matters, Shawn represents individuals and corporations in sensitive and high-profile trials, investigations, complex litigation and internal and government-led investigations.
Shawn has a diverse white-collar practice, representing companies and individuals in connection with white-collar criminal defense and investigations by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and state and local enforcement agencies. These matters and investigations have included, among other things, alleged insider trading, securities and wire fraud, sanctions evasion, money laundering, and diversion of controlled substances. Shawn also maintains a broad civil practice, including advising clients in matters concerning allegations of harassment and discrimination, as well as contractual and labor and employment disputes.
Shawn has briefed and argued numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Her contributions to public service have been recognized with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance by a Litigative Team and the U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General’s Award.
Shawn’s current and recent representations include:
- Represented E. Jean Carroll at her sexual assault and defamation trial against Donald Trump, resulting in a $5 million jury verdict in Carroll’s favor
- Representing employees of a major financial services institution in connection with DOJ and SEC investigations into block trading
- Representing the former CEO of a global technology company in a state attorney general criminal investigation of insider trading
- Representing employees of a Wall Street bank in connection with an SEC inquiry into the bank’s preservation of off-channel communications
- Representing various individuals in separate federal criminal investigations into insider trading, resulting in the DOJ declining to prosecute in two recent representations
- Representing the former founder and head of a crypto-currency hedge fund who was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York for fraud
- Representing the principal of a financial services firm in connection with DOJ and SEC investigations into short trading and market manipulation
- Representing a witness in a criminal investigation into a real estate company for potential wrongdoing
- Representing the Democratic National Committee in connection with a criminal investigation relating to the 2016 presidential election, as well as a defamation and civil RICO suit brought by former president Donald J. Trump
- Representing an employee of New York-based non-profit in DOJ investigation into potential kickback scheme
- Representing professional athletes with claims of harassment
- Representing a financial services firm in an SEC investigation related to SPACs
- Representing a former officer of a fortune-500 company in connection with a DOJ/SEC accounting fraud investigation, resulting in both agencies declining to bring charges
- Representing an individual in connection with a Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation into swaps trading at a large commercial bank
- Representing an employee of a major transport-solutions company in connection with a DOJ investigation into the company’s compliance measures
- Representing a non-profit homeless services provider in connection with state and federal criminal investigation into its former CEO relating to embezzlement and kickbacks
Shawn joined the firm after serving for more than six years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, during which time she investigated, supervised, and prosecuted a variety of cases, including matters involving terrorism and national security offenses, sanctions violations, money laundering, cyber-terrorism, opioid diversion, and international narcotics trafficking. Shawn was Co-Chief of both the Narcotics Unit and Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, supervising dozens of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, investigators, and other personnel in investigations, prosecutions, and trials involving a wide range of national security, drug trafficking, and white-collar offenses.
Notable cases that Shawn supervised include the first-ever felony charges against an opioid distributor, Rochester Drug Co-Operative, and its former chief executive officer and chief compliance officer, in 2019, which resulted in a trial conviction, deferred prosecution agreement, imposition of a monitorship and $20 million fine, and guilty pleas; sanctions evasion, money laundering, and fraud charges against Türkiye Halk Bankasi A.Ş. or “Halkbank,” for its alleged participation in a multi-billion-collar Iranian sanctions-evasion scheme; the capital prosecution of Sayfullo Saipov for the alleged 2017 truck attack in Tribeca; and the coordinated narcotics-trafficking charges against five doctors and two other health care professionals for oxycodone diversion in 2018. Shawn also supervised the 2020 prosecution of the sitting president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and other high-level Venezuelan officials, on charges of narco-terrorism and weapons offenses.
Shawn has tried numerous cases as a prosecutor, including those involving terrorism offenses, money laundering, opioid diversion, racketeering, murder, and narcotics trafficking. These included the trial and conviction of the so-called “Chelsea Bomber,” Ahmad Khan Rahimi, for perpetrating a terrorist attack bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in October 2016, and the trial and conviction of Akayed Ullah for his attempted suicide bombing in the Times Square subway station in 2017.
Shawn previously served as a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School, where she supervised externships for law students within the Southern District of New York. She began her career as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP where she maintained a broad commercial litigation practice with a focus on matters involving violations of federal securities and antitrust laws, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Shawn received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar, a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar, the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, and a recipient of the Alfred S. Forsyth Prize for Excellence in Environmental Law. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University.
