Joel Athey is a partner at Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey LLP. Joel has extensive experience representing clients in both federal and state court in the areas of white collar criminal defense, internal corporate investigations, and complex commercial litigation.

213.533.7037 jathey@corbfitzlaw.com

White Collar Criminal Defense & Corporate Investigations

Joel represents individuals and corporations against allegations of financial and accounting fraud, public corruption, Federal Corrupt Practices Act violations, bankruptcy fraud, environmental crimes, health care fraud, violations of banking regulations, insurance fraud, and criminal antitrust violations.

He also represents companies conducting internal, corporate investigations of alleged wrongdoing by the company or its employees. This includes successfully demonstrating to prosecutors that his corporate clients did not engage in illegal conduct, thereby avoiding further investigation or prosecution.

Banking & Regulatory Investigations

Joel is one of the leading attorneys in California representing officers and directors of failed financial institutions in various criminal and regulatory investigations and related litigations, including securities class action and ERISA lawsuits. He represents more than 100 officers and directors from more than 10 failed banks in investigations by the Department of Justice, Securities & Exchange Commission, and the FDIC. He has been present at several bank takeovers to represent clients in FDIC interviews. He also represents officers and directors in all phases of post-takeover FDIC proceedings, including administrative investigations seeking a bar against officers and directors, and professional liability investigations and litigations by which the FDIC seeks to sue officers and directors for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.

Complex Civil Litigation

Joel's civil litigation experience in federal and state courts includes matters involving securities class action (in both federal and state court), ERISA, breach of contract disputes, intellectual property suits, appeals of government contract terminations, and civil False Claims Act allegations. He has successfully represented healthcare providers, movie production companies, aerospace firms, and professional athletes in a variety of complex matters.

Trial Experience

Joel represents clients at all phases of criminal and civil proceedings. In criminal matters, this includes grand jury investigations (where the goal is avoiding prosecution) and post-arrest proceedings such as preliminary hearings, trial, and sentencing. His trial experience includes a federal criminal trial that resulted in acquittal on all counts for the individual and corporate defendants accused of government-procurement fraud.

He also served as a special prosecutor for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office through the LA County Bar's Trial Advocacy Program. There, Joel was lead trial lawyer in six trials, handling all phases of the trial from jury selection to opening and closing arguments and all witness examinations.

Education and Professional Experience

Joel graduated from Columbia Law School in 1999, where he also served as Executive Editor of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering summa cum laude from Rutgers University in 1994. Before joining Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey, Joel practiced at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles, as a member of the Business Crimes and Investigations practice group.

Joel is a Member of the Bar of the State of California and New York and the Bars of the United States District Courts for the Central and Eastern Districts of California, and the Southern District of New York. He serves as a Board Member of the White Collar Crime Committee of the American Bar Association. Every year since 2004, Joel has been named a "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers magazine (denoting recognition as one the best lawyers under the age of 40), an honor given to only 2.5% of attorneys in California (and to fewer than 10 white collar criminal defense attorneys attorneys in Los Angeles).