Mr. Rocco is the Chair of the Litigation Department of Heller Ehrman’s New York Office and a member of the Firm’s Securities Litigation and Complex Commercial Litigation Practice Groups. He joined Heller Ehrman in 2000.

Experience

Mr. Rocco is a nationally recognized white collar litigator. He has extensive trial and appellate experience in federal and state courts and regularly represents both U.S. and foreign-based corporations in connection with internal corporate investigations, criminal, civil and regulatory matters, arbitrations and in complex commercial disputes.

Through the years, Mr. Rocco has represented a broad spectrum of clients in variety of complex commercial, regulatory and criminal matters. Those clients have included: public and private companies, corporate officers, directors, boards of directors, audit committees, special committees, issuers of securities, investment advisors, investment companies, mutual funds, broker-dealers, accounting firms, law firms, commercial banks, mortgage banks and servicing companies, art dealers and collectors, public officials, political figures, defense contractors, real estate developers, unions, pension funds, trade associations, sportspeople and business entrepreneurs. He has represented clients who have been sued for, investigated for, or charged with, violations of the federal RICO statute, the Sherman and Clayton Acts, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Taft-Hartley Act, the Hobbs Act, the Lacey Act, money laundering statutes, securities statutes and regulations, mail and wire fraud statutes, bank fraud statutes, tax fraud statutes, bankruptcy fraud statutes, smuggling statutes, and export control statutes and regulations. Mr. Rocco routinely defends individuals and corporations in private securities cases, enforcement and regulatory actions, derivative lawsuits, civil antitrust matters and RICO actions. He also has extensive experience in cross-border investigation and prosecutions, extradition matters, bankruptcy litigation, insurance coverage disputes and in complex commercial litigation involving licensing business torts and breach of contract claims. He has tried more than twenty cases, criminal and civil, to verdict before judges and juries in both federal and state courts.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Rocco was Chief of the Criminal Division for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and prior to that was Chief of the Office’s Narcotics section. Mr. Rocco was law clerk to the Honorable John F. Scileppi, Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals.

Mr. Rocco is the former President of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers and member of its Board of Directors. He has been a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Criminal Law Committee, Criminal Advocacy Committee and Professional Responsibility Committee, as well as a special Ad Hoc Committee on Pretrial Publicity that was appointed by the Association’s Executive Committee to study the impact of pretrial publicity on the right to a speedy and fair trial in criminal cases. He is a former member of the Sub-Committee of The Local Rules of Civil Litigation Committee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Rocco is a member of The Board of Directors of The Legal Aid Society and formerly served on the Board of Advisors for the Society

Mr. Rocco has lectured widely on RICO, complex litigation tactics, legal ethics, and trial strategies and techniques at symposia, before professional organizations and at law schools. He has taught trial advocacy at the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, The National Institute for Trial Advocacy, The Practising Law Institute and before a number of professional groups.

Representative Engagements

• Representation of a court-appointed federal equity receiver charged with the operation and dissolution of a failed mortgage banking and mortgage servicing company with assets exceeding $9 billion.
• Co-counsel for major telecommunications company in diversity action to recover approximately $100 million against corporate officers on their personal guarantees securing payment of corporate obligations.
• Representation of a major food distributor and Antitrust Division investigation of bid-rigging scheme regarding lunch program in New York City schools.
• Representation of national telecommunications provider in connection with federal grand jury investigation.
• Representation of one of nine floor broker members of the New York Stock Exchange in the first criminal and parallel civil proceeding ever brought under Section 11(a) of the Securities Exchange Act (15 U.S.C. § 78K) and Rule 11-a-1(a) (17 CFR § 240. 11-a-1(a)) for on floor trading and trading in an account in which the floor broker maintained an ownership interest.
• Representation of a labor union in one of the first civil RICO prosecutions brought by the government to take control of a union.
• Representation of a number of Teamster locals in connection with government initiated civil RICO prosecutions.
• Representation of a former Transportation Administrator for the City of New York in a RICO prosecution arising out of the Parking Violations Bureau scandal in New York City in the mid-1980’s.
• Representation of one of the defendants in the successful defense of a major RICO prosecution brought in the Southern District of New York against restaurant and club owners for alleged profits skimming.
• Representation of the counsel to the New York State Assembly in the successful defense of a mail fraud prosecution brought by the United States Attorney of the Eastern District of New York against the Counsel and the Speaker of the New York State Assembly.
• Representation of one of America’s premier equestrians and former captain of the United States Equestrian Team in a RICO prosecution brought by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois involving an insurance fraud scheme.
• Representation of major interior general construction firm in connection with bid-rigging investigation by New York County District Attorney’s Office.
• Representation of major exterior lighting manufacturer in federal antitrust prosecution for price-fixing.
• Representation of a public company in connection with federal grand jury investigation into alleged violations of health industry anti-kickback regulations.
• Representation of public company in connection with grand jury investigation of alleged fraud in Department of Defense security installation contract.
• Representation of a major electrical contractor in connection with a bid rigging and kickback investigation by the New York County District Attorney’s Office.
• Representation of directors of Ozark Airlines in class action alleging ERISA violations.
• Representation of Union Pension Fund in connection with class action alleging violations of ERISA accrual rules and breach of common law fiduciary obligations.
• Representation of major real estate developer in connection with an action by Washington, DC retirement board to recover losses resulting from alleged violations of DC Employees Retirement Program Act.

Publications

• "Wildlife Conservation Under the Lacey Act: International Cooperation or Legal Imperialism?"  NYSBA Journal, Vol. 80, No.4  05.2008
• “Executives Do Not Need Waivers and Companies Should Not Offer Them: A Response to Mark Kressel,”   116 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 262.  2007
• "Defending Federal Criminal Cases, Attacking the Government's Proof,"  Law Journal Press  01.01.2006
• “RICO: Civil and Criminal Law and Strategy,”   Law Journal Seminars Press, Rakoff & Goldstein, eds.  1989