Patrick McCooe is an associate in K&L Gates’ Boston, Massachusetts office, and is a member of the firm’s investigations, enforcement, and white collar and complex commercial litigation and disputes practice groups. His practice focuses on defending companies and individuals against complex government investigations and prosecutions, and also business and securities litigation matters for clients in highly regulated industries who benefit from a broad view of criminal, government enforcement, and civil representation, and the nuanced overlap among them.
Patrick has defended clients and conducted internal investigations regarding a wide variety of federal and state criminal, securities law, and other complex government enforcement and civil matters brought by the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and other federal and state enforcement agencies. He has also advised clients on a variety of domestic and international federal criminal matters and enforcement investigations, including cross-border and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations.
In doing so, Patrick has had considerable success dissuading governmental agencies from pursuing criminal or other enforcement action against his clients, as well as proactively guiding clients through government investigations without ever becoming a subject of them in the first place. Patrick has developed substantial experience preparing witnesses to testify in government and civil matters, and has appeared in a variety of state and federal courts, government agency proceedings, and alternative dispute resolution forums, including jury trials, mediations, and dispositive court motions. He also has extensive experience managing complex government and civil discovery for clients, including large scale document productions, written discovery, and complex discovery issues relating to electronically stored information.
In 2018, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly recognized Patrick with an Excellence in the Law - Pro Bono Award for his pro bono work securing the release of Fred Weichel, who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 36 years for a first-degree murder he did not commit.
