Biography
Rita is a partner in the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation group and leads the white collar practice in the New York office.

Rita has extensive experience in white collar and enforcement matters. Immediately prior to joining V&E, Rita worked for 11 years in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where she recently served as head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and supervised more than 400 lawyers in that Division during the transition period of the new Administration. In this capacity, Rita led the Division in enforcing federal law in such areas as public corruption, corporate crimes, securities fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, cyber security, procurement fraud, health care fraud, and mortgage fraud. Rita also represented DOJ before Congress, testifying about the financial crisis and the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and the House Financial Services Committee. Throughout the transition period of the new Administration, Rita worked towards the development of the Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which President Obama created through Executive Order in November 2009.

Rita began her service as a prosecutor with DOJ in 1998, first as a Trial Attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division and then, from 2003 until 2010, Rita was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. As a prosecutor, Rita served as trial counsel in 17 federal jury trials, handled numerous appeals, and investigated hundreds of criminal matters, including public corruption offenses, corporate crimes, financial and securities fraud, federal campaign finance law violations, tax fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, money laundering, and health care fraud. During her tenure at DOJ and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Rita also worked with numerous other federal agencies, including the SEC, CFTC, Treasury Department, IRS-CID, and SIGTARP on various enforcement matters.