Courtroom drama: Jan Handzlik, former Assistant U.S. Attorney, now represents corporate clients scrambling to keep up with a slew of new regulations and tougher standards. (People).JAN Handzlik, a partner in business fraud litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. at the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. office of Kirkland & Ellis, has been swamped lately. A former assistant U.S. Attorney in criminal fraud and special prosecutions, Handzlik is also chairman of the American Bar The American Bar is a drinking establishment at the Savoy Hotel in London. Opened in 1898 when cocktail were being first introduced to London. The term American Bar comes from the 1930s when cocktails were first gaining popularity in the United States. Association's White Collar Crime white collar crime n. a generic term for crimes involving commercial fraud, cheating consumers, swindles, insider trading on the stock market, embezzlement and other forms of dishonest business schemes. Committee, which consists of 700 to 800 prosecutors and defense attorneys of white-collar crime white-collar crime, term coined by Edward Sutherland for nonviolent crimes committed by corporations or individuals such as office workers or sales personnel (see white-collar workers) in the course of their business activities. . Those two roles have found him working long hours with increased investigations and compliance work. The pressure of serving corporate clients at the center of an on going storm is not new for Handzlik, who also served as deputy general counsel of the Rampart Independent Review Panel and counsel to the Christopher Commission In Los Angeles, the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, was formed in July 1991, in the wake of the Rodney King beating, by then-mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley. following the Rodney King Rodney Glen King (born April 9, 1965 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an African-American taxicab driver who was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Sargent Stacey Koon) after being chased for speeding. incident in 1991. Once a child actor, Handzlik says he finds more drama in a courtroom than on television. Question: What has your job been like these days? Answer: I have a number of active investigations with the SEC and U.S. Attorney's office in cases that involve the alleged manipulation of revenues and falsification falsification /fal·si·fi·ca·tion/ (fawl?si-fi-ka´shun) lying. retrospective falsification unconscious distortion of past experiences to conform to present emotional needs. of financial statements. As a direct result of the recent news about financial fraud, I've also gotten many calls from companies and executives concerned about these issues. Q: Do you have clients in L.A. now under investigation? A: I can't give you the names, but some are in L.A., some aren't. Companies on the West Coast have to be concerned just as those on the East Coast or Midwest. We've seen some pretty extreme examples of alleged manipulation of earnings in publicized cases. It may not be cases that involve billions of dollars, but there are cases that involve substantial sums of mis-stated earnings on the West Coast. Q: How have you handled the increased caseload case·load n. The number of cases handled in a given period, as by an attorney or by a clinic or social services agency. caseload Noun ? A: It has been a bit of a strain on us. Other lawyers have spent more time on these cases than on other pieces of litigation. Many of the younger partners and associates who work on these matters work on both civil litigation and criminal matters. Q: You've been defending clients charged with white-collar crimes for more than two decades. How is this environment different from the savings and loan crisis The Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s was a wave of savings and loan association failures in the United States in which over 1,000 savings and loan institutions failed in "the largest and costliest venture in public misfeasance, malfeasance and larceny of all time. or the crackdowns on the defense and health care industries? A: This is unusual and worse, in terms of the anxiety that exists in the investment and corporate communities. In the so-called S&L crisis, you had people running financial institutions who used S&Ls or banks to finance projects in which they might have had a clear conflict of interest. In many of those cases, there was knowledge on their part that they were doing something wrong. The one thing that is different now is the government is investigating things as criminal that certainly would have been considered regulatory or civil in the past, such as accounting violations, books and records violations or misstatements on financial forms and reports. Now, because of the government's emphasis on these matters, many more cases are finding their way to the U.S. Attorney's office. Q: Do you think the new regulations being proposed in Washington are necessary? A: I think it's window-dressing and silly. The laws on mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud carry substantial penalties right now. It may make the American public feel good and may give the impression that Congress is doing something significant, but it doesn't really mean anything. The fact that many of the new requirements are being placed on corporate directors and CEOs is very troubling. It's usually not the responsibility of the CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. to roll up his sleeves and make sure every entry in the books is correct. For example, in the case of a defense contractor or a health care corporation, each entry in the books may have thousands of transactions. The CEO has to be able to delegate to others and rely on others for these specialized services. Q: How does the media attention to these issues affect your clients? A: One of the deficiencies in the way business crimes are covered in the media is that it's very difficult for reporters and commentators to communicate in a simple way what's going on What's Going On is a record by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. Released on May 21, 1971 (see 1971 in music), What's Going On reflected the beginning of a new trend in soul music. . As a result, the public doesn't grasp the issues. It's unusual for above-the-fold news coverage to be about white-collar crime. Those things would generally be in the business pages or back of the front section. That's quite a change. Q: Has that changed your job? A: Helping tell the story of a company is a very important part of what I do. If there's any hint of suspicion that's raised, companies want someone to bring a proactive approach to blunt it before it becomes a huge public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most problem. In the past, we might have had a story to tell, and we couldn't get anyone to listen because there wasn't room for that stuff. Now it's the other way around. We're getting calls on some obscure matters, but at least we're getting calls, which I haven't seen in the past. Q: How would you define white-collar crime? A: White-collar crime is a misnomer misnomer n. the wrong name. MISNOMER. The act of using a wrong name. 2. Misnomers, may be considered with regard to contracts, to devises and bequests, and to suits or actions. 3.-1. . What I do is business fraud litigation. In the past, we saw the government go after mom and pop Mom and Pop An adjective denoting a small-scale and family-like atmosphere, often used to describe these types of businesses and investors. Notes: A mom-and-pop business is typically a small family-run business. boiler room boiler room n. a telephone bank operation in which fast-talking telemarketers or campaigners attempt to sell stock, services, goods, or candidates and act as if they are calling from an established company or brokerage. operations and individual doctors and labs alleging kickbacks and concealment. Today, the government is going after major multinational corporations. These cases can be cash cows for the government -- they go after major fines and penalties and jail times for individuals. They're looking at a big payday on the civil side. Q: What are you most focused on right now at the ABA? A: The primary focus is ethics. The vast majority of American companies conduct themselves in an honorable and ethical way. It is a handful of companies that have created problems for everyone. Having said that, businesses have a responsibility to satisfy their customers and keep their earnings up and return value to shareholders. The question is, how do you get from Point A to Point B? Most do it in an open and honest and ethical way, but there are some that stray over the line. Is it appropriate for certain transactions to be considered revenues as opposed to something else? Has an accountant or auditor bent his principles on behalf of one of his corporate clients? Has a company tried to keep earnings per share up through unethical means because the executives might benefit from that? Q: What do you like about your job? A: Criminal cases have a beginning, middle and end, and they're over much more quickly than a civil case. So you get to see things through to an outcome much more often. I also enjoy the fact that there are many trials in criminal cases. I enjoy going to trial. Q: What do you consider the turning point in your career? A: The turning point was my experience in the U.S. Attorney's office. I gained trial skills and very solid litigation skills. I tried cases before very demanding federal judges. The experience I gained and the friendships and contacts at the U.S. Attorney's office have been good in my career. Q: You played the little boy, Patrick, in "Auntie Maine" on Broadway when you were young. Did your early acting career help you in law? A: There is a natural relationship between being an actor and trial lawyer. You have to be concerned about how your performance is going, you have to communicate clearly, you have to be persuasive and you always have to worry about the critics, which would be the jury. Q: Why didn't you want to be an actor? A: I always thought I would go back to acting, but my mother stressed the importance of education. And I wanted to become a trial lawyer. From watching "Perry Mason" and "To Kill a Mocking Bird" and reading about trial lawyers and their exploits from a young age, I thought this would be a glamorous and interesting occupation, and I haven't been disappointed. RELATED ARTICLE: INTERVIEW Jan Handzlik Title: Partner Organization: Kirkland & Ellis Born: New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , 1945 Education: Bachelor of Arts from USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. ; law degree from UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX Career Turning Point: Serving as assistant U.S. Attorney in L.A. Most Admired Person: U.S. District Judge Francis Whelan Personal: Divorced, three children |
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