Overview
(June 29, 2018, Washington, DC) — Global Investigations Review (GIR) has named Steptoe partner Brigida Benitez to its 2018 "Women in Investigations: One Hundred Investigation Specialists from Around the World." The list highlights 100 female practitioners from around the globe who were selected by GIR's editorial team after an open nomination process.
In a profile published June 20, Benitez describes what she brings to the table as an investigator, her biggest career accomplishments to date, the burning question in investigations today and the most exciting place work has taken her.
At Steptoe, Benitez focuses on global anti-corruption matters, internal investigations, and complex litigation. Based in the firm’s Washington office, she conducts internal investigations relating to a variety of sensitive and business-critical issues, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, financial fraud and corruption, ethics and violations of codes of conduct, accounting irregularities, whistleblower complaints, employee misconduct, and sanctions procedures of the World Bank and other international financial institutions.
Benitez previously headed the Office of Institutional Integrity of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the independent office responsible for investigating potential fraud and corruption in IDB-financed activities, and implementing compliance policies and procedures relating to anticorruption, anti-money laundering, offshore financial centers, and sanctions laws and regulations administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Her work covered 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Benitez draws on 25 years of experience representing clients in high-stakes, complex investigations and litigation matters, along with a deep understanding of the multijurisdictional investigative process, to help clients address and mitigate reputational and litigation risk. She is fluent in Spanish and has conducted investigations throughout Latin America.
Benitez is a past president of the DC Bar, the second largest unified bar in the country with more than 100,000 members worldwide. Benitez serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches a course on international business litigation. She has been recognized by Hispanic Business magazine as a "Woman of the Year" and one of the "100 most influential US Hispanics," and by Latino Leaders magazine as one of the "25 Most Influential Hispanic Lawyers."
Read the full profile at Global Investigations Review (subscription required).
About Steptoe
In more than 100 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
