Overview
Vanessa Singh Johannes is an experienced trial attorney whose practice focuses on complex criminal and civil matters. For a decade, she served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, trying dozens of federal jury trials and handling appellate matters before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In private practice, she has represented clients in a variety of white collar matters involving fraud, antitrust, and environmental issues.
In her distinguished career as a federal prosecutor, Vanessa investigated, indicted, and tried cases involving crimes such as fraud and money laundering, espionage, arms trafficking, child exploitation, human trafficking, and violent crimes. She also handled investigations into affirmative civil rights violations. Vanessa has deep working knowledge and experience with all phases of government investigations — from grand jury inquiries to weekslong jury trials. During her tenure in the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office, Vanessa served in the Special Prosecutions, Civil Rights, Major Crimes, and Appellate units. More recently, she also served as the district’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, assisting federal agents and child exploitation prosecutors with training and case preparedness, as well as investigating and intaking all of the child exploitation cases in Miami. Vanessa earned the prestigious Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2018 for her work prosecuting Christopher Glenn, a U.S. citizen and Department of Defense contractor, who committed cyber espionage, theft of classified materials, and sex trafficking of minors in Honduras.
As a tenured federal prosecutor, Vanessa led several multiagency investigations and developed close working relationships with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Miami-Dade Police Department.
In private practice, Vanessa has a track record of representing Fortune 500 companies in complex litigation. Her notable matters include representing a large financial institution in multibillion-dollar federal antitrust litigation; a nonprofit foundation in a lawsuit against a purported hedge fund manager, who ran a million-dollar Ponzi scheme in New York; a large telecommunications company in an environmental toxic tort litigation in federal court; and corporate executives accused of federal health care fraud and money laundering violations.
Born in Guyana, and raised in South Miami, Vanessa is devoted to giving back to her community. She has volunteered as a writing coach for the Posse Foundation, which provides minority high school students with college scholarships and training in writing and leadership skills. Vanessa is also involved in the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association and the Caribbean Bar Association.
Vanessa is the Miami office co-managing shareholder.