Steptoe & Johnson LLP announced that Julia L. Gatto, former federal defender for the Southern District of New York, has joined the firm’s Investigations and White-Collar Defense Group as a partner in the New York office. The addition follows another high-profile hire—former Assistant US Attorney Dwight J. Draughon, Jr.—who joined the group in July.
As a federal defender, Gatto has represented nearly 1,000 individuals in a wide variety of criminal cases including securities fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), public corruption, and healthcare. She secured acquittals in half the criminal cases she tried to verdict in federal court. Prior to her 14 years as a federal defender, Gatto was an associate at two prominent law firms (Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel, and Sercarz & Riopelle) in the New York area, where she focused on white-collar litigation and securities arbitrations.
At Steptoe, Gatto will continue to defend individuals facing government investigations in federal and state courts, as well as counsel public and private companies through internal investigations, Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations and enforcement matters, and crisis management issues.
Steptoe’s Investigations and White-Collar Defense practice has represented some of the largest public and private companies in the world in major government and internal investigations.
In more than 100 years of practice, Steptoe & Johnson LLP has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington.
