Jessie Liu
Jessie K. Liu focuses on government and internal investigations, including involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; board and audit committee representations; complex civil litigation involving government entities, particularly in the area of the False Claims Act; crisis management counseling; and issues involving multipronged litigation, enforcement and risk management.
Ms. Liu has significant experience in issues involving economic sanctions, export control, national security, anti-money laundering, the Bank Secrecy Act, financial regulatory matters, government procurement fraud and public corruption.
From 2017-20, Ms. Liu served as the Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, leading the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office. In this role, she oversaw matters of national and international significance involving corruption, fraud and national security. In particular, she obtained resolutions with several international banks for violating U.S. economic sanctions; an international aerospace company on a nearly $4 billion settlement for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and U.S. export control laws and regulations; and numerous federal contractors and grantees, including former professional cyclist Lance Armstrong, for violations of the False Claims Act. She also created a Threat Finance Unit focused on deterring, disrupting and prosecuting the use of illicit financial flows supporting criminal activity and terrorism. From 2019-20, she also served as chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, a small group of U.S. attorneys who advise the attorney general and deputy attorney general on issues affecting the U.S. attorney’s offices, after having previously served as a member of the committee from 2017-19.
Prior to joining the U.S. attorney’s office, Ms. Liu was deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Treasury. In this role, she provided legal and policy advice to the secretary of the treasury and other senior department officials, with a focus on national security, law enforcement and international issues, such as economic and trade sanctions, anti-money laundering efforts, and national security reviews of foreign acquisitions of U.S. businesses by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Between 2006-09, Ms. Liu served in various roles within the U.S. Department of Justice, including as deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, counsel to the deputy attorney general for national security issues and deputy chief of staff for the National Security Division. From 2002-06, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for District of Columbia.
During her career, Ms. Liu was a partner at two international law firms, handling government investigations and civil litigation.
Ms. Liu has been recognized as a top 25 lateral hire of 2020 by The American Lawyer and as a White Collar Trailblazer by The National Law Journal. In addition, she has been featured in Global Investigations Review’s Top 100 Women in Investigations and named to Chambers USA.