The international law firm Bryan Cave LLP today announced that Richard Finneran has joined the firm as a partner in the White Collar Defense and Investigations Group. His practice concentrates on white collar criminal matters, corporate internal investigations, corporate compliance, and civil trial and appellate litigation. Finneran will be resident in the St. Louis office.
From 2010 to 2017, Finneran served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri where he was responsible for prosecuting some of the region’s most significant white collar matters, including the two largest financial fraud trials ever conducted by that office. His caseload as a federal prosecutor featured investment frauds, embezzlements, Ponzi schemes, securities frauds, tax evasion, Bank Secrecy Act violations, cybercrimes, public corruption and money laundering matters. Finneran also supervised federal agents and assisted prosecutors in numerous other federal criminal cases and investigations, including bank robberies, child pornography offenses, drug trafficking and violent crimes. He has tried several cases in federal court and argued numerous appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Finneran’s work as a federal prosecutor has earned him accolades from across the legal profession. His cases have been featured nationally in Wired Magazine, NPR’s Planet Money and NBC’s American Greed. In 2014, he received Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s Legal Champion Award for his work in prosecuting the largest criminal fraud in the history of the Eastern District of Missouri. In 2016, he was honored with the Missouri Bar Foundation’s David J. Dixon Appellate Advocacy Award, which recognizes exceptional appellate practice by a member of the Missouri Bar.
During his time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Finneran supervised the office’s Suspicious Activity Report Review Team and was a frequent presenter on the subject of Bank Secrecy Act compliance. He also served as a member of the U.S. Department of Justice E-Discovery Working Group and as an instructor at the National Advocacy Center on trial presentation and litigation technology. A former member of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Advisory Committee of the Department of Justice, Finneran is recognized nationally for his work in federal forfeiture law, with his academic writing on the subject having been featured in the Cardozo Law Review.
Finneran also serves as an adjunct professor at Washington University School of Law, where he has instructed students in constitutional law, criminal procedure and appellate advocacy and has been twice recognized as the Adjunct Professor of the Year. He also serves as the head coach of the school’s National Moot Court Team, which has won numerous national championships under his leadership.
Rich brings with him deep knowledge across numerous areas of criminal and civil practice, said Mark Srere, leader of the White Collar Group. He will be a great addition to our group and an asset for Bryan Cave’s clients firmwide.
Finneran received his J.D. in 2008, magna cum laude, from Washington University School of Law. He received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of North Carolina in 2005.
