“There are other firms whose bread and butter is playing nice with the government,” says Noel Francisco, head of Jones Day’s government regulation practice. “Our firm is willing to take it to the government, in a professional way.” Karen Hewitt, who leads the firm’s San Diego office, concurs: “We are not about self-protection,” she says. “We will go adversarial.”
But Jones Day’s strength goes beyond its willingness to play hardball. With white-collar lawyers in 25 locations worldwide, the firm can quickly “mobilize across offices in a fully integrated way,” says Theodore Chung, who heads the investigations and white-collar practice. “We can handle both local and truly global matters.” Case in point: the firm’s ongoing global representation of Walmart Stores Inc. in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act probes.
