David A. Last

David A. Last’s practice focuses on enforcement and litigation, including government and internal investigations, white collar criminal defense of companies and individuals in a wide range of high-stakes domestic and international enforcement actions, crisis management, and trials with a particular focus on complex cross-border matters such as those involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

David brings extensive experience in leading complex white collar criminal investigations and litigation matters both in private practice and during his 17 years as a federal prosecutor for the Department of Justice, where he investigated and conducted trials related to various subject matters, including foreign bribery, money laundering, fraud, and tax offenses. 

Prior to joining Cleary, David served as the Chief of the FCPA Unit at the Department of Justice, where he oversaw all FCPA-related investigations, prosecutions, corporate resolutions, trials, and compliance monitorships in the United States. Under his leadership, the FCPA Unit investigated over 200 matters involving the FCPA, money laundering, wire fraud, and other corruption-related offenses, encompassing every significant industry sector and geographic region. As a prosecutor and supervisor in the FCPA Unit, David led and oversaw many of the DOJ’s most high-profile and significant matters, including one of the largest coordinated FCPA resolutions in history. David also played a key role in shaping major corporate criminal enforcement policies. He also reviewed and evaluated the compliance programs of numerous companies under investigation by the DOJ. As Chief of the FCPA Unit, David also collaborated extensively with domestic regulators such as the SEC, CFTC, and Federal Reserve, as well as international law enforcement authorities in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Brazil, and Mexico, among numerous others.

In addition to his leadership roles at DOJ, David is also a seasoned trial lawyer, having personally tried more than 40 cases to verdict and supervised some of the most complex white-collar and foreign bribery related investigations and trials in the country. For over a decade, David served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., where he investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of white-collar criminal cases, including financial fraud, public corruption, wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, tax evasion, and Travel Act violations, among other criminal cases. David also investigated a number of matters related to claims under the False Claims Act.

Since joining Cleary, David has worked with clients on a broad spectrum of criminal and civil litigation issues, including internal investigations and representations related to anti-bribery and corruption, False Claims Act, cyber fraud, and sanctions. David also represents public and private companies, as well as individual executives, in matters before the DOJ, the SEC and other regulators. He also frequently advises on the development of compliance and integrity programs and counsels clients in advance of strategic transactions.

David joined the firm as a partner in 2023.