Kenneth A. Polite Jr.

KENNETH POLITE is a global co-leader of Sidley’s White Collar Defense and Investigations practice and the former Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Kenneth represents leading corporations and executives in internal and government investigations as well as in crisis management and compliance matters.

As the highest-ranking attorney in DOJ’s Criminal Division, Kenneth led a team of more than 1,400 attorneys and staff members who were responsible for conducting criminal investigations and prosecutions in many of the most wide-ranging and complex criminal cases at the Department involving securities fraud, healthcare fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, public corruption, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, and money laundering offenses. In that role, he also traveled extensively to work with his counterparts around the world in multinational and cross-border investigations.

Earlier in his career, Kenneth served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where he was responsible for all federal criminal and civil matters in that district, including political corruption, healthcare fraud, tax evasion, and environmental crimes. He was responsible for bringing in several high-profile cases during his tenure. Kenneth also previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted a broad range of federal cases, including public corruption and healthcare fraud.

In addition to his government service, Kenneth was the chief compliance officer at a Fortune 500 company. He is the first Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division to have served as a chief compliance officer. While at DOJ, Kenneth drew upon that experience while overseeing significant changes to DOJ’s guidance on the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs and other compliance policies concerning corporate enforcement, voluntary self-disclosure, chief compliance officer certifications, compensation claw backs, and ephemeral messaging.

Kenneth’s private practice experience includes representing corporations in sensitive government enforcement matters before the DOJ and other federal and state entities. He has also conducted internal investigations on behalf of companies and boards of directors, particularly in the energy, financial, healthcare, life sciences, and technology sectors, and counseled management on corporate compliance and governance.