Leslie Caldwell Named Top White Collar Lawyer in California

The Daily Journal, California’s legal newspaper of record, has named Bay Area partner Leslie Caldwell a Top White Collar Lawyer. Caldwell was recognized for her headline-making work in private practice as well as her storied career as the former Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division, the original Director of the Enron Task Force, Chief of both the Criminal Division and the Securities Fraud Section in the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, and multiple leadership roles in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. 

In the feature article, The Daily Journal highlighted her work defending Taiwanese technology manufacturer United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC). As the flagship of the US Government’s “China Initiative,” targeting trade secrets theft from China, UMC was charged by the DOJ with theft of trade secrets, economic espionage, and conspiracy, in a case the US Attorney General said could be worth tens of billions of dollars. Caldwell and her team slowly dismantled the government’s case and achieved the dismissal of the criminal conspiracy charges against UMC, narrowing the case to the point where the client pleaded to a single count of possession of a stolen trade secret and agreed to a nominal fine. Caldwell noted the through the course of the investigation Latham, “Came to understand there were a lot of elements in the charges not supported by evidence.” She added, “I feel very happy for our client. It was the right outcome.”