In the current legal and business climate, the lines between criminal, civil and regulatory enforcement are more blurred than ever. Lightfoot, Franklin & White regularly represents businesses and individuals in white collar criminal matters in federal and state courts. We also represent our clients' interests before Congress and federal regulatory agencies, and in specialized investigations such as military proceedings. Our lawyers have conducted numerous internal investigations for a wide variety of firms and companies, advising senior management and boards of directors in a practical business manner.

The best enforcement action or criminal investigation is the one that stops. Our lawyers provide responsive, hands-on service so that in many instances the indictment never happens, the subpoena never issues, and the story never breaks. For that reason, we cannot share many of our best moments. Other representations are public, however, and we would be happy to discuss them with you. In some of those matters, we have:

• Assisted a federal health-care researcher in a criminal and civil investigation into the loss of computerized health information.
• Counseled a county commission and commissioners subpoenaed as part of a nationwide SEC investigation into interest-rate "swaps" on government bonds.
• Represented a senior officer and director of an outpatient healthcare company in parallel civil, criminal, Congressional and administrative proceedings.
• Represented the president of a gasoline company in a Clean Air Act grand jury investigation.
• Assisted a pharmaceutical company in a military criminal investigation.
• Represented an officer of a poultry company in a Clean Water Act case.
• Conducted an internal investigation for a major insurance company whose Birmingham office director was accused of accepting kickbacks.
• Represented with regard to extradition issues a German national indicted for civil and criminal environmental offenses in Germany.
• Reviewed contracts with sales representatives abroad for compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
• Provided comments on proposed Alabama business crime legislation.
• Represented a national accounting firm responding to a grand jury subpoena in a criminal antitrust investigation.
• Assisted institutional healthcare clients in responding to contacts by government investigators; advised clients on threatened qui tam lawsuits under the False Claims Act.
• Represented the environmental engineer at a quarry in a joint federal/state investigation into the quarry's environmental management practices and alleged false statements made to inspectors.
• Assisted a healthcare provider with potential Medicare fraud issues.