Sonali D. Patel

Sonali D. Patel offers clients an understanding of how the DOJ and foreign authorities approach enforcement matters with extensive experience handling complex cross-border investigations, including those involving foreign corruption, fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and national security matters.

Sonali brings ten years of experience at the Department of Justice to her work at the firm. She previously served as assistant chief of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit of the Department of Justice. Prior to being appointed as assistant chief, Sonali served as a trial attorney within the FCPA Unit. During her time in the Unit, Sonali worked on matters involving the SEC, CFTC, and numerous international law enforcement agencies. Sonali was previously an assistant United States attorney for the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where she tried numerous cases.

While at DOJ, Sonali led more than 50 FCPA-related investigations, including the agency’s Houston-based PDVSA cases, where 29 defendants were charged in an international money laundering scheme involving bribes made to Venezuela’s state-owned energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela. During her time in the FCPA unit, Sonali also worked on some of unit’s most significant individual prosecutions. As an AUSA, Sonali focused on fraud, public corruption, cyber crime and violent crime investigations.

Prior to her work as a prosecutor, Sonali clerked for the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2014, and worked as a litigation associate at a leading international law firm in New York.

• University of Pennsylvania Law School, JD
• Columbia University, BA, cum laude
  Fulbright Scholar

• District of Columbia