John M. Hillebrecht is a veteran trial and appellate lawyer with an extensive background in high-profile cases and over 25 years of experience handling complicated criminal and civil litigation and investigations.

Prior to joining AKD Partners in 2010, John served for 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), garnering extensive trial, appellate and supervisory experience.

He has served as lead or sole counsel in more than 20 jury trials and approximately 50 Second Circuit appeals. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, regulatory enforcement, securities class actions, complex commercial litigation, and criminal tax matters. John is National Co-Chair of DLA's White Collar Practice — ranked as a "National Tier 1" practice group by US News & World Report (2018) and praised by The Legal 500 for "its strength in corporate representations, including cross-border investigations involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and parallel foreign enforcement agencies." The latter publication quoted a client as praising the group's "actual experience in the trenches, meaning significant trial experience, former employment in government enforcement, and active cases against the government" and noted John's "key role" in the practice, recommending him for both white collar and securities litigation matters. The nationwide group and the New York office are both ranked by Chambers in Band 2 ("Highly Regarded"), with the publication quoting one client as saying, "DLA was wonderful to work with, and I would use them again in a heartbeat" and others praising the group's white collar investigations work as "superb" and "very strong on all fronts."

Disentangling the disentitlement doctrine: 'U.S. v. Bardakova'�

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