Spencer Gottlieb

Spencer has represented clients in the technology, energy, life sciences, healthcare, entertainment, financial services, and consumer products industries. He advises clients exposed to significant criminal and civil liability before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), state attorneys general, and others.

Recent engagements include the following:

• Representing entities in various federal grand jury investigations involving allegations of embezzlement, workplace harassment, kickbacks, and theft of government funds.
• Investigating the China-based subsidiary of a U.S. manufacturer on whistleblower Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, including purchase order skimming, tax fraud, and ghost payrolls.
• Investigating a multinational company in the education industry relating to potential third-party vendor misconduct in the Middle East.
• Investigating alleged decades-long sexual and financial misconduct by the CEO of a multinational corporation.
• Revising an international gaming corporation's anti-corruption policy and training its directors and officers on global anti-corruption statutes.
• Advising various corporations on political laws and regulations governing contributions, lobbying, and political action committee (PAC) reporting and registration requirements.

Spencer's civil litigation experience includes securing a complete win for a startup company's founders against a former advisor, achieving a first-of-its-kind victory for solar energy customers seeking compensation for grid exports, and defeating proposed emergency relief threatening a merger vote in Hong Kong.

Maintaining an active and varied pro bono practice, Spencer recently assisted the Illinois Torture Inquiry & Relief Commission's homicide confession review unit and co-drafted a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief on the constitutionality of judicial appointments.

Spencer earned his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was published in and an editor for the Michigan Law Review. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable Eric N. Vitaliano of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Before law school, Spencer taught high school algebra with the Teach For America program.