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PDFWilliam “Billy” Jackson is chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Government Investigations Practice Group and a member of the Commercial Litigation Section. Billy helps clients navigate federal and state government investigations and enforcement actions and conducts internal investigations for companies grappling with allegations of misconduct. His practice uniquely combines investigative, litigation, regulatory, corporate, and government-engagement expertise to provide creative solutions for clients seeking guidance when there is no road map.
Prior to joining the firm, Billy served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. While there, he tried numerous jury and bench trials and successfully defended many convictions and sentences on appeal. He was lead counsel on hundreds of criminal cases involving white-collar crime, money laundering, large-scale heroin and fentanyl trafficking, and RICO and organized crime, including several murder cases. He was also the Lead Task Force Attorney in charge of the District’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program, which is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s strategy to combat transnational organized crime and money-laundering threats.
Before he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Billy was a litigation associate at Winston & Strawn LLP in Washington, D.C., where he handled matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the False Claims Act (FCA), securities litigation, administrative law, and employment law.
Billy served as a law clerk to Judge Kent Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and to Judge Eduardo Robreno of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Billy has taught Lawyering Skills as an adjunct professor of law at William & Mary Law School.
Practice Areas
Experience
- Received the U.S. Secret Service Award for Outstanding Assistance in investigating and prosecuting crimes involving counterfeit money.
- Received the FBI Director’s Award for helping secure 11 guilty pleas and a guilty verdict at trial in Operation Hardest Hit, an investigation and prosecution of one of the largest heroin rings in the Tidewater area.
- Received the Chesapeake Police Department Award for Outstanding Teamwork in prosecuting drug-trafficking crimes.
- Represented a national consumer products company in a multibillion-dollar qui tam suit over military contracts.
- Represented a sovereign state in numerous forums, including successful representation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on a question of jurisdiction to hear tax refund claims outside the state’s own courts.
- Represented a racetrack association in a Maryland administrative proceeding challenging a municipality’s multimillion-dollar assessment of water and wastewater fees.
- Represented a food industry trade association objecting to proposed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations affecting the nutrition label.
- Successfully represented a leading professional service firm in Delaware Chancery Court, obtaining a preliminary injunction against a former client for breaching a non-compete agreement.
- Successfully represented an asset management client in a post-settlement appraisal arbitration, recovering nearly $1 million surrendered by objecting shareholders to participate in the proceeding.
- Part of a team that conducted an internal investigation into potential FCPA violations at a multinational corporation’s U.S. and Chinese affiliates.
- Part of a team that derivatively sued directors and officers on behalf of a diamond appraisal company in New York state court, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, mismanagement, and waste of corporate assets.
- As court-appointed lead counsel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, successfully briefed and argued that a 100-year sentence imposed on a 16-year-old boy for homicide likely violated the Eighth Amendment where, according to the panel, the sentencing court “utterly failed to consider that children are different”; received Winston & Strawn LLP’s Pro Bono Commitment to Service Award for that appellate victory.
Publications and Speaking Engagements
California’s Nonpartisan Blanket Primary: A Blanket Too Short and Too Narrow, Stanford Law and Policy Review (2012)