Biography: Commercial Litigation

Douglas A Axel is a partner in Sidley's Los Angeles office. A former federal prosecutor, Mr Axel focuses his practice on white-collar criminal defence, SEC enforcement and complex commercial litigation. Mr Axel has substantial experience prosecuting and defending individuals and corporations in white-collar and government enforcement matters, including matters involving securities fraud, insider trading, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the False Claims Act, health-care enforcement, and antitrust.

Recent representations have included representation of a major financial institution in connection with Department of Justice investigations into securitisation and foreclosure practices; representation of a Fortune 100 conglomerate before the DoJ and SEC in connection with an FCPA investigation; representation of a major medical device company in connection with a DoJ investigation into FDA regulatory issues; defending the CEO of a pharmaceutical company against DOJ fraud charges arising from the publication of clinical trial results; representation of company executives and other individuals in criminal investigations into alleged securities fraud, antitrust, FDA regulatory violations, and other offences.

Prior to joining Sidley, Mr Axel was an assistant United States attorney in the Central District of California, where he served as the chief of that office's major frauds section. As chief, Mr Axel supervised 40 lawyers who investigated and prosecuted a wide range of business and other white-collar crimes, including corporate fraud, health-care fraud, securities and investment fraud, financial fraud, government procurement fraud, tax fraud and public corruption offences.

Mr Axel serves as a co-chair of the American Bar Association's white-collar crime qui tarn subcommittee, as well as its white-collar crime corporate criminal liability subcommittee.

Mr Axel received his JD (summa cum laude, Order of the Coif) from the University of California, Hastings School of law in 1994 and his BS from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991. He is admitted in California.