Karen P. Hewitt

Hewitt is a go-to lawyer for major national and international companies facing criminal and civil investigations, as well as high-stakes litigation.

She was the Jones Day partner who served as lead outside counsel for Walmart in the long-running federal investigation into whether the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA.

Walmart agreed in June to pay $282 million to settle an FCPA investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission that lasted seven years. News reports indicated the government had previously sought a $1 billion payment.

The resolution of the probe included no charges being filed against company executives and a non-prosecution agreement for the company itself. The terms of the corporate monitorship Walmart agreed to were also limited in area and scope.

“In the end, the company put in worldwide additional compliance controls and was able to achieve a very favorable resolution with the government,” Hewitt said. “From my perspective, the most satisfying part is knowing the client is in a much better position now because they have instituted these worldwide compliance reforms.”

As the work on the Walmart bribery investigation wound down, Hewitt’s work on another Walmart matter picked up.

She is the lead Jones Day partner serving as outside counsel for the company in the nationwide series of civil cases arising from the current opioid crisis, including the multidistrict litigation in Cleveland, Ohio.

Hewitt said the thousands of suits filed against Walmart and a variety of other entities are the largest body of civil litigation in U.S. history. Leading the team of Jones Day lawyers working on those cases necessitates a well-developed strategy and very intensive legal work, she said.

“It requires a skillset of being able to manage a large amount of information and a lot of people effectively and efficiently,” Hewitt said.

Hewitt, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, is also the partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s San Diego office.

In that role, she oversees more than 60 lawyers who work on intellectual property, corporate, litigation and white collar matters.

Hewitt said the office has consistently grown, and the firm recently leased additional space to accommodate its expansion.

“There is such a great energy in this office,” Hewitt said. “It’s nice to see the kinds of people we are attracting and recruiting who are building their careers here.”

— Lyle Moran