James Durkin is a former federal prosecutor and experienced trial lawyer who focuses his practice on white-collar and government enforcement matters, internal investigations and compliance matters, and complex civil litigation. He represents companies and individuals in matters ranging from white-collar healthcare cases to investigations brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other government agencies. James draws upon his first-hand knowledge of how the government decides to pursue and resolve cases when navigating clients through complex and sensitive investigations and prosecutions.
After launching his career as an associate at McDermott, James spent seven years at the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois before returning to the Firm. Most recently, James served in the National Security and Cybercrime Section of the US Attorney’s Office, where he led a variety of investigations and prosecutions involving cyber fraud, trade secrets theft, identity theft, trade sanctions, counterintelligence, foreign terrorism, domestic terrorism and civil unrest violations. In addition to that work, James spent years working on and ultimately supervising a sprawling and high-profile investigation into public corruption that has resulted in numerous convictions of elected and public officials.
James also has significant experience handling cases involving healthcare fraud, mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, insurance fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), international drug trafficking, firearms trafficking and violent robberies. He has conducted internal investigations across many industries—experience he uses to advise clients not only how to respond to government and regulatory investigations, but also how to avoid them and their associated costs by developing and implementing effective compliance programs.
