Our fifth episode, “Anti-Corruption Compliance: Bribery & FCPA”, features guest speakers Jim McCurry, Jon Kolodner, and Lisa Vicens.  I asked our guests to “tell us a little bit about themselves, what they do and how they got there.”  Lisa said:

“My journey to how I got involved in working on FCPA and anti-corruption issues actually begins with Georgetown University.  I went to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown and graduated in 1999. And went on to get my Master’s degree in Latin American Studies also from the School of Foreign Service, where I really focused on getting an expertise regionally in both language skills as well as understanding the political and economic histories of the region, as well as the current issues facing the region at the time.  After I got my Masters, I went to law school and then came to Cleary Gottlieb, which as a law firm, is well known as having a very international practice.  And I was really fortunate as a very junior lawyer to begin working on investigations in white collar matters on behalf of our international clients, again, focusing on Latin America.  So when I became partner (I was up for partner in 2014, became partner in 2015) the timing was fortunate in the sense that that was really when Lava Jato, the huge anti-bribery scandal, started in Brazil.  I found that for the first many years of my partnership, I was really focused and working almost exclusively on FCPA matters arising out of Brazil and the region in connection with Lava Jato.  So it started at Georgetown, but I ultimately found my home at Cleary.”

Interested in hearing more?  Check out Episode 5 here (available October 28, 2021).