Pillsbury Continues to Grow Corporate Investigations Team with Arrival of Former Federal Prosecutor Jeffrey Izant

Prior to joining Pillsbury, Izant was the Acting Chief of Staff in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was also previously an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, where he served as Cybercrime Counsel, the Computer Hacking & Intellectual Property Assistant United States Attorney and a National Security Cyber Specialist.

“Our ability to help navigate complex corporate investigations has become increasingly important to Pillsbury clients in the U.S. and globally,” said Global Head of Litigation Deborah Baum. “We look forward to introducing Jeff’s impressive capabilities to our clients.”

William Sullivan, chair of Pillsbury’s Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense Practice Group, added: “Jeff, with his well-earned reputation for successfully handling complex tech-related investigations and disputes, brings a wealth of experience in cyber-crime, data security, cryptocurrency fraud and darkweb markets to our rapidly expanding team.”

As Acting Chief of Staff, Izant helped DOJ leadership supervise the Division’s investigations, prosecutions and appeals in high-visibility cases involving Bank Secrecy Act violations, corruption, cybercrime, fraud, money laundering, racketeering and sanctions violations, including the charging, litigation and resolution of cases involving corporate defendants prosecuted by the Fraud Section and the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section’s Bank Integrity Unit.

As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he investigated and prosecuted national security crimes involving cyber advanced persistent threat groups, counterintelligence, international terrorism, domestic terrorism, and export control violations. Additionally, he led complex, transnational cybercrime investigations relating to computer intrusions, account takeovers, data breaches, ransomware schemes, darkweb markets, cryptocurrency fraud and unlawful money transmitters.

He also spent nearly two years in private practice in New York at an AmLaw 50 firm representing U.S. and multinational companies and senior executives in government investigations on matters relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, insider trading, healthcare fraud, and criminal antitrust violations and in accompanying civil litigation.

Izant is the latest high-profile arrival to Pillsbury’s nationally ranked Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense practice. Since 2021, the firm has welcomed former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and former U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue in New York; former Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Chris Caffarone in New York; former National Coordinator of the DOJ’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Program Mark Krotoski in Silicon Valley; former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Dylan Aste in San Diego; former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and former Assistant State Attorney for Miami-Dade County Stephen Demanovich in Miami; former federal prosecutor Kimberly Jaimez in Los Angeles; also, in Los Angeles Ronald Cheng, a former U.S. Attorney’s Office Division Chief and U.S. Department of Justice Resident Advisor in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing; former Meta Integrity lawyer and trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, DC, Tony Phillips, and, in San Francisco, Adam Goldberg, who has extensive experience in Asia-related investigations. Internationally, the firm welcomed Audrey Koh to head up a local corporate investigations team in London and Jia Yan, who oversees a broad corporate, investigations and disputes practice in Shanghai that spans Asia, the U.S. and the UK.

Pillsbury’s award-winning team of more than 200 litigators works with clients around the world to help them successfully resolve disputes, both in trial winning the old-fashioned way and out of court, leveraging that win record so opponents know we mean business. The firm has garnered dozens of top-tier recognitions as a result of its exceptional litigation prowess and is regularly identified as one of the most feared law firms CLOs and GCs come up against in litigation according to BTI Consulting Group.