Bio

Joel Cohen, a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, is Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group, and a member of its Securities Litigation, Class Actions and Antitrust Practice Groups. Mr. Cohen has been lead or co-lead counsel in 24 civil and criminal trials in federal and state courts. Mr. Cohen is equally comfortable leading confidential investigations, managing crises or advocating in court. Mr. Cohen’s experience includes all aspects of FCPA/anticorruption issues, insider trading, cross-border tax issues, securities and financial institution litigation, class actions, sanctions, money laundering and asset recovery, with a particular focus on international disputes and discovery. Mr. Cohen was the prosecutor of Jordan Belfort and Stratton Oakmont, which is the focus of “The Wolf of Wall Street” film by Martin Scorsese. He was an advisor to the OECD in connection with the effort to prohibit corruption in international transactions and was the first Department of Justice legal liaison advisor to the French Ministry of Justice. Mr. Cohen is highly-rated in Chambers, where practitioners and clients have noted that he “is very, very good at getting the big picture . . . understanding where his clients want to be, which leads to better strategic judgments,” he has “incredibly strong substantive depth melded with a risk-based practicality,” “strong trial skills and handling of large-scale investigations,” “has a finger on the pulse of the regulators and government,” is “very, very smart and very knowledgeable,” and praised his ability to “handle very intense, complex matters with regulatory authorities and really just deliver great results.” Mr. Cohen has been repeatedly named a leading white collar criminal defense attorney by The Best Lawyers in America©, a “Litigation Star” and national Top 100 Trial Lawyer by Benchmark Litigation, an “MVP” by Law360, one of the world’s leading practitioners in White Collar Crime in Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides – White Collar Crime, a “Super Lawyer” in Criminal Litigation, by Global Investigations Review, and his work has been noted by Legal 500 in the areas of white collar criminal defense and securities litigation.