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White collar litigators had a simple reason to expect a surge in activity in 2021. There was a new occupant in the White House.
President Donald Trump oversaw a significant decline in white collar enforcement during his administration. The average number of white-collar defendants dropped by up to 30% during Trump’s first three years in office compared to the average under President Barack Obama, Bloomberg reported.
From those depths, lawyers figured there was only one way to go: Up.
But they might have been mildly disappointed in 2021.
White collar prosecutions increased by about 12% over the the first year of President Joe Biden’s administration, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which has tracked U.S. justice system records since 1989. Still, prosecutions were down nearly 25% from five years ago, TRAC data show.
Enforcement will continue to rise during the second year under Biden, said Andrew Goldstein, head of Cooley’s white-collar defense and investigations group. Developing cases takes time, and government agencies needed to staff up, he said.
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