John P. Cunningham

How John Helps Clients

John Cunningham concentrates his practice on internal investigations, corporate compliance, and white collar defense. He advises clients on a broad range of criminal, regulatory, and compliance concerns, focusing on FCPA and global anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, merger and acquisition due diligence, fraud, asset forfeiture, export controls and trade sanctions, and attorney-client privilege.

His practice includes representing companies before the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission, and other agencies in connection with such matters. He also specializes in designing, developing, and refining corporate compliance programs in harmony with the expectations and requirements of those agencies. At the core of his practice is a dedicated emphasis on providing clients with the right tools--from both an investigations and compliance perspective--to deter, detect, prevent, and remediate problems, and attentively guide them through each step of the process.

Prior to joining Buchanan, John worked for over ten years at one of the largest international law firms in the world. He also has extensive federal enforcement experience, having served as a senior trial attorney with the Department of Justice and an investigative analyst for the criminal division of the FBI. Additionally, he was a federal law clerk to the Honorable Gerald B. Lee in the Eastern District of Virginia.

John’s clients are primarily companies and other entities seeking experienced counsel in an investigative context or striving to enhance their compliance programs to mitigate risk and maximize employee and operational productivity. He counsels companies across a spectrum of sectors, including health care, life sciences, financial services, consumer products, hospitality, energy, manufacturing, and entertainment.

What Clients Can Expect

Given John’s background as a DOJ senior trial attorney and federal law enforcement investigator, coupled with his experience in both large and small law firms, he has managed a variety of matters and clients across a wide range of industry sectors. Clients rely on his unique government and defense experience, hands-on approach, accessibility, and keen legal insight to help find customized, timely solutions.

Outside the Office

In his personal time, John is an avid tennis player, drummer in a D.C.-based band and travel, sports, and history enthusiast.

Proof Points

• Conducted comprehensive anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, and trade sanctions internal or government-directed investigations for multiple companies, including a renowned consulting firm, an engineering and manufacturing corporation, an IT services company, a producer of business-to-business goods and services, a life sciences entity, and a product manufacturer.
• Advocated for international information services firm in extensive DOJ, FBI, and Securities and Exchange Commission fraud and internal controls investigations.
• Designed, implemented, and defended comprehensive U.S. and global compliance programs for business products, aerospace, technology services, private equity, IT, engineering, infrastructure, consulting, retail, public relations, medical device, and life sciences companies.
• Directed targeted compliance evaluations and corresponding program enhancements for corporations in various industries, including banking and finance, management and consulting, technology, mobile devices, solar energy, product manufacturing, casinos, and hospitality.
• Performed fulsome anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, trade sanctions, and third-party-focused risk assessments for multinational corporations in a vast array of industry sectors, including technology, life sciences, manufacturing, industrial equipment, mobile devices, retail, food services, and consulting.
• Led FCPA, anti-money laundering, general compliance, and related pre- and post-acquisition due diligence projects for mergers and acquisitions by companies in the financial services, energy, life sciences, consulting, technology, product development and manufacturing sectors.
• Represented individuals in an expansive cross-jurisdictional criminal money laundering matter involving alleged gambling proceeds and a multi-state immigration fraud case.
• Investigated and defended criminal matters involving federal prosecutions for asset forfeiture, counterfeiting, espionage, and narcotics-related allegations.