Steptoe is pleased to announce that Assistant US Attorney Christopher Niewoehner, a deputy chief in the Financial Crimes and Special Prosecution section of the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, will be joining the firm as a partner in the White-Collar Criminal Defense practice which includes acclaimed trial attorney Reid Weingarten. Mr. Niewoehner will be based in Steptoe’s Chicago office.
As an assistant US attorney for the past 12 years, Mr. Niewoehner has investigated and litigated all aspects of high-profile corruption cases that have garnered international headlines includingUnited States v. Rod Blagojevich, which resulted in the July 2011 conviction of the former governor of Illinois. Mr. Niewoehner served as the lead prosecutor in the two-month trial and conviction of Tony Rezko, a top advisor to Mr. Blagojevich charged with nine separate fraud schemes, and led the prosecutionof Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, an influential Chicago businessman and politician convicted of defrauding a medical school in a multi-million dollar real estate deal. Most recently, Mr. Niewoehner served as lead attorney in the trial of William Cellini, a long-standing political insider in Illinois state government convicted in November 2011 of extorting campaign contributions.
Described in media accounts as a “controlled, concise prosecutor” who is “unflappable,” Mr. Niewoehner has tried 17 federal jury trials and two federal bench trials, ten of them as lead attorney. He has argued six appeals in the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals and briefed three additional appeals, including one in the 2nd Circuit. Mr. Niewoehner has investigated and litigated complex criminal cases from inception through appeal, including cases involving health care fraud, financial fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, racketeering, narcotics, and violent crimes.
In welcoming Mr. Niewoehner, Steptoe Chair Roger Warin commented: “Chris’s substantial jury trial and appellate experience will deepen the bench of our white-collar criminal defense team, and expand our practice to Chicago with a noted senior prosecutor who has first-chair trial experience in many high-profile cases. His skills as a trial lawyer will also fit well with our practice in high-stakes civil litigation.”
Brian Heberlig, head of Steptoe’s White-Collar Criminal Defense practice, added: “The US attorney’s office in Chicago is one of the most prestigious in the country, and Chris’s many contributions as a lead prosecutor in some of the most-followed corruption cases are certainly a factor in that office’s success. We are very happy to have found someone of his caliber to establish a Midwest presence for our white-collar team.”
Steptoe’s White-Collar Criminal Defense practice, named a “White Collar Group of 2011” byLaw360 and recommended in the just-released 2012 edition of the Legal 500 US guidebook, represents individuals and corporations in some of the most noteworthy cases in the country involving allegations of accounting and securities fraud, corporate misconduct, public corruption, money laundering, price fixing, government contracting fraud, healthcare fraud, environmental crimes and export control violations. The team’s Mr. Weingarten, widely recognized as one of the nation’s top criminal defense lawyers, was recently singled out by the legal directory Chambers USA to receive the 2012 Chambers Award for Excellence in White-Collar, and has been named the International Business Crime Defense Lawyer of the Year byWho’s Who Legal for six consecutive years. The Steptoe white-collar litigation team also includes six former federal prosecutors with extensive trial experience and a host of lawyers with substantial experience in other government positions.
“Steptoe has one of the premier white-collar practices in the country,” said Mr. Niewoehner. “Not only am I looking forward to working with the team’s very talented lawyers in representing senior executives and corporations in a variety of industries, I am excited about the opportunity to spearhead the first major geographic expansion of the practice beyond the east coast corridor and to establish a presence in Chicago.”
Mr. Niewoehner is a magna cum laude graduate of both Harvard Law School and Harvard College. As part of a Rotary Scholarship, he traveled to New Delhi, India for graduate courses in international studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prior to joining the US attorney’s office in 2000, he clerked for Judge Milton Shadur of the Northern District of Illinois and was an associate at a Chicago-based firm.
