Janet I. Levine

Janet I. Levine, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP, has recently spent her time defending officials accused of bribing foreign governments for hefty contracts.

One noteworthy case, which ended in December, dealt with Lindsey Manufacturing Co. and its former chief financial officer who was facing criminal charges alleging he participated in a scheme to pay millions of dollars in bribes to Mexican government officials in exchange for lucrative contracts. The judge dismissed the case, finding that prosecutors engaged in misconduct.

She became one of the first lawyers to defend an executive accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"Because there were so many new issues, there was a lot more litigation to go into the case - more pleadings and more contentiousness [about] how you proved things. There was keen interest by everyone that does these cases," she said.

Earlier this year, she represented the chief financial officer of Chicago-based BCI Aircraft Leasing Inc. in a seven-week jury trial in which the jury hung and the case was dismissed. The case, in the Northern District of Illinois, dealt with a company that sold and leased commercial airplanes that was accused of making false statements to investors and auditors and participating in a $50 million fraudulent financing scheme.

The downside of going to trial, besides the obvious cost, was "if you lose, you often end up with a worse result [than] if you had made a deal or resolution. It's much like civil trials. The result at trial can be more dramatic because people aren't making compromised decisions," she said.

Levine's desire to become a lawyer began during the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. She was in college at UCLA when the scandal broke and when President Richard M. Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace.

"I saw trials of key people in the administration and saw what people can do," she said, "and was fascinated, inspired."

She said she remained a lawyer because she really liked it.

"I love the problem solving; it's exactly like a puzzle," she said. "What trial lawyers do is put together all these pieces of a puzzle in a way that makes a picture."

That knack of puzzle and problem solving has served Levine well in her career.

The lessons of Watergate and her two cases were that "rules are not to be disobeyed because you work for the government," she said.

"Their clients have to play by the rules and all lawyers have to play by the rules."

- AMEERA BUTT