Overview
Michael Yaeger's practice focuses on government investigations, white collar defense, cybersecurity, and related compliance. His combination of government and private sector experience has given him deep experience managing risks that cross the boundaries between criminal, regulatory, and civil litigation, including appeals.
Michael's experience includes matters involving alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities fraud, cybercrime, accounting fraud, tax fraud, investment adviser fraud, money laundering, health care fraud, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the False Claims Act. Michael also advises clients on cybersecurity compliance (including data incident response, policy drafting, and commercial advice), OFAC compliance, FCPA compliance, and general subpoena and law enforcement compliance, and has assisted blockchain-based businesses in obtaining bit licenses from the New York DFS. His clients have mostly been institutions and individuals in heavily regulated sectors such as financial services and health care, but have ranged from banks, well-established private investment funds, broker-dealers, and academic medical centers, to fintech and blockchain related startups and entrepreneurs. A number of his matters have involved representing clients simultaneously in investigations by the Department of Justice or a state attorney general, the SEC, CFTC, or another civil regulator, and a private class action.
Michael also has considerable federal appellate experience, especially on white-collar, cybersecurity, and constitutional issues, and is available not only to argue cases but also to write amicus briefs.
Before joining the firm, Michael was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted cases in the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the Criminal Division. He also served as his office's co-coordinator for Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property crimes.
Michael clerked for the Honorable Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (now a U.S. Supreme Court Justice), and the Honorable Milton Pollack of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.A. from Yale University.
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