Heather Nyong’o is Co-Leader of Cleary Gottlieb’s U.S. Antitrust Group.

Her practice focuses on antitrust enforcement, including governmental and criminal investigations, international cartel disputes, merger clearance, and other complex civil and criminal litigation.

With over two decades of white-collar and antitrust experience, Heather is a seasoned litigator and skilled first-chair trial lawyer. She regularly represents major multinational corporations and executives in complex investigations and litigation in the United States and abroad. Heather fully serves her clients across every phase of investigations and litigation, including through trial. She has led multiple notable cases for individuals and corporations in non-public grand jury investigations.

After spending nearly a decade working in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Heather brings a wealth of experience in government investigations, particularly those that result in criminal or civil litigation. She won the Attorney General’s Award, the DOJ’s second-highest honor, and handled some of the agency’s most significant investigations and criminal prosecutions in recent years. After her time at the DOJ, Heather developed and led a successful antitrust, complex civil and criminal litigation, and enforcement investigations practice at another prominent firm in the Bay Area, where she served as the partner-in-charge of that firm’s San Francisco office.

Heather joined the firm as a partner in 2021.

Read More

Notable Experience

Previous Experience

  • Rohan Ramchandani, former head of European spot foreign exchange trading for a large financial institution, in the complete acquittal on a landmark federal grand jury indictment following an extensive two-week trial, in which he faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million for his alleged involvement in one of the largest investigations in the history of cartel enforcement.

  • Former CEO and CFO of Thornburg Mortgage, previously the second-largest independent mortgage company in the U.S., in the dismissal after jury trial of a lawsuit related to alleged securities violations arising out of the 2008 financial crisis.

  • An international manufacturer in a price-fixing investigation into an alleged decade-long manufacturing cartel conducted by multiple national authorities and favorable settlement of follow-on class action litigation.

  • Chesapeake Energy in rare dismissal of charges by the Michigan Attorney General of allegations of price-fixing and bid-rigging.

  • A senior executive in rare dismissal of OCC charges relating to allegations of market manipulation, safety and soundness, and fiduciary duty violations.

  • Multiple non-public grand jury and government investigations relating to alleged antitrust (price-fixing, market allocation, bid-rigging, and no-poach arrangements), FCPA, money-laundering, and fraud violations.

See More

Selected Activities

trigger

Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America – Trial Lawyer Honorary Society

Vice Chair, Cartel and Criminal Enforcement Committee, American Bar Association

Member, American Bar Association International Task Force

Advisor, California Lawyer’s Antitrust, Unfair Competition, and Privacy Executive Committee

Former Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Competition, California State Bar and Westlaw

Publications

Events