Debevoise & Plimpton today announced that Kara Novaco Brockmeyer, former Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit, is joining the firm’s Washington, D.C. office as a partner and member of the White-Collar and Regulatory Defense and Strategic Crisis Response and Solutions Groups.

For the past five and a half years, Brockmeyer directed a nationwide team of attorneys and forensic accountants investigating violations of the FCPA, including anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the federal securities laws.

During her tenure as chief of the unit, she oversaw many of the agency’s largest and most complex FCPA investigations, and under her leadership, the SEC increased its coordination with other countries to reach global settlement resolutions. She was also one of the principal authors of the SEC-DOJ Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is widely considered the definitive government-issued guide on the FCPA.

Brockmeyer’s expertise extends well beyond the FCPA. Over a 17-year career at the SEC, including five years as an assistant director, she has led and personally conducted major investigations in all areas of SEC enforcement, including financial reporting, broker-dealer and investment adviser violations, and insider trading. She was the founder and co-head of the division’s Cross–Border Working Group, an interdisciplinary group focused on addressing accounting fraud by companies based overseas.

Brockmeyer’s addition to the firm follows the recent return of Mary Jo White, former Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Andrew Ceresney, former Director of the Division of Enforcement at the SEC and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York; and the joining of Winston Paes, former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section.

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