The early months of the Trump administration have brought about the resignations of the two most prominent lawyers behind the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent campaign against corporate wrongdoing. The departures of Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and DOJ Compliance Counsel Hui Chen, coupled with the administration’s business-friendly rhetoric, might tempt corporate compliance officers to conclude that the DOJ is shifting its emphasis away from corporate prosecutions.
They shouldn’t. In fact, neither those high-profile defections nor the change in administration is likely to alter the mindsets of the working lawyers in the DOJ’s 94 U.S. Attorney offices. Those prosecutors will not only continue pursuing the same types of cases they were pursuing before the inauguration, they’ll also keep getting better at it.
