Sharon M. Bunzel

Partner

Sharon Bunzel is a partner in O’Melveny’s San Francisco Office and a member of the White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations Group. Her practice focuses on the representation of corporate and individual targets, defendants, witnesses, and victims in criminal and regulatory investigations and prosecutions, as well as related civil actions. Sharon advises boards, audit committees, and independent directors in connection with complex and sensitive internal investigations.

Sharon served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of California from 1999 to 2005, overseeing long-term, complex investigations, and prosecuting large criminal organizations. She gained substantial trial and appellate experience, having conducted several trials and numerous oral arguments before the District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Sharon worked closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and served a detail as Special Counsel to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Sharon serves as O’Melveny’s Firmwide Hiring Partner. She also Chairs the San Francisco Office’s Pro Bono Committee and sits on the Firmwide Community Legal Services Committee. Sharon has been awarded O’Melveny’s Values Award, an annual award given to two partners worldwide who exemplify the Firm’s values of leadership, excellence, and citizenship.

Illustrative Professional Experience

Antitrust: Individual and corporate representations of targets in DOJ Antitrust Division investigations of the freight forwarding, air cargo, LCD panel, and DRAM industries.

Trade Secrets and Computer Crimes: Representations of corporate victims of trade secret misappropriation and computer fraud in pursuing civil and criminal remedies, and of corporate targets of FBI trade secret theft investigations and related internal investigations, criminal prosecutions, and civil litigation.

Securities Fraud: Representations of high-level employees and executives in stock options backdating and securities fraud investigations, and related criminal, civil, and regulatory matters.

Health Care Fraud: Corporate and individual representations in criminal investigations and civil suits for off-label marketing of pharmaceuticals and health care fraud.

Grand Jury Investigations: Representation of companies in connection with grand jury proceedings, including counseling with respect to witness and document subpoenas, testimony, and government interviews.

U.S. Attorney’s Office: Prosecuted 43-defendant drug conspiracy case (one of the largest drug conspiracies ever prosecuted in the Northern District of California) after having overseen a 10-month wiretap investigation by federal, state, and local agents; Prosecuted multi-defendant drug conspiracy in which the death penalty was sought and received national recognition with the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force’s Regional Award; Prosecuted immigration offenses and acted as liaison with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (then I.N.S.) for immigration-related offenses.

Professional Activities

Publications, “Obstruction of Justice Under Computer Associates: Legal, Tactical and Ethical Implications For Attorneys Conducting Internal Investigations,” Internal Investigations: Legal, Ethical & Strategic Issues (PLI 2006); “When It Is Against The Law Not To Confess: Securities Law Requirements To Disclose Illegal Conduct,” 1996 ABA White Collar Crime at F-1; Note, “The Probation Officer and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Strange Philosophical Bedfellows,” 104 Yale Law Journal 933 (1995); Book Review, “Sitting in Judgment: The Sentencing of White Collar Criminals,” Yale Survey of Current Legal Issues 116 (Prototype Issue, June 1996)
Law Clerk, Honorable Fern M. Smith, (then) U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
Judicial Extern, Honorable Jose A. Cabranes, (then) U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut