ALEXA POLETTO represents individual and corporate clients in connection with internal investigations, regulatory enforcement actions, and prosecutions conducted by various agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Department of Financial Services, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. She regularly advises senior management and boards of directors regarding sensitive enforcement and investigation-related issues including allegations of financial and ethical misconduct.
Alexa has broad experience in a number of industries including financial services, insurance, environmental, sports, and life sciences, and her representations include multinational corporations, banks, broker dealers, insurance companies, credit card operators, sovereign wealth funds, asset management firms, auto manufacturers, and sports organizations.
Alexa regularly counsels companies and financial institutions on the design and implementation of corporate compliance programs. She has extensive experience working on corporate compliance monitorships, both as counsel to a corporate monitor and representing a financial institution subject to a monitor. She regularly advises clients on a range of anti-money laundering (AML), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and anti-corruption compliance issues, including due diligence of business partners in international business transactions. In this regard, she conducts risk assessments and advises companies including private equity firms on FCPA and anti-corruption issues in mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. Alexa has experience representing clients in a range of complex civil and criminal litigation.
A fluent Italian speaker, Alexa is often called on to handle matters in Italian.
Prior to joining Sidley, Alexa served as an attorney adviser for the DOJ through the agency’s Honors Program. Alexa earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a notes editor for the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. Prior to law school, she received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Damascus, Syria. She spent several years working in the Middle East and speaks conversational Arabic.
Alexa is a member of SidleyWomen.