Bruce E. Yannett

Bruce Yannett is Deputy Presiding Partner of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and Chair of the White Collar & Regulatory Defense Practice Group. He focuses on white collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement and internal investigations. He represents a broad range of companies, financial institutions and their executives in matters involving securities fraud, accounting fraud, foreign bribery, insider trading, and money laundering. He has extensive experience representing corporations and individuals outside the United States in responding to inquiries and investigations. Mr. Yannett’s practice also encompasses complex litigation, including derivative cases, shareholder actions and commercial disputes.

Mr. Yannett joined Debevoise in 1986. In 1987 and 1988, he served on the team of lawyers selected by Lawrence Walsh to investigate the Iran/Contra matter, acting as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel. From 1988 to 1992, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he was lead trial counsel in 20 jury trials ranging from bribery to murder. He also served in the Transnational and Major Crimes Unit, where he conducted investigations related to international terrorism, money laundering, and sanctions violations. Mr. Yannett returned to Debevoise in 1992.

Mr. Yannett has written and lectured extensively on issues relating to white collar criminal defense and regulatory enforcement. He is an editor of the firm’s monthly FCPA Update and a current member of the Board of Editors of Financial Fraud Law Report and of the Editorial Board of Global Investigations Review. Mr. Yannett co-authored a chapter on the FCPA in Defending Corporations & Individuals in Government Investigations, published in 2011 and 2013 by West. He previously served as co-chair of the ABA Litigation Section’s Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege and as co-chair of the ABA’s Criminal Litigation Committee. He is admitted to appear before the Second, Fifth, Tenth and D.C. Circuits, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the District of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Yannett received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Brown University in 1980, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his J.D., cum laude, from New York University Law School in 1985, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was the Executive Editor of the New York University Law Review. From 1985 to 1986, he served as a Law Clerk to the Hon. Edward Weinfeld of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.