Overview
(June 23, 2022, Washington, DC) — Law360 has named Steptoe partner Katherine "Katie" M. Dubyak a Rising Star in White-Collar Law.
Selected by a team of editors who carefully reviewed more than 1,000 submissions, the Rising Stars list recognizes individuals with significant legal accomplishments under the age of 40.
In a profile published June 15, the editors cited—as one of her major accomplishments—Dubyak's role in navigating a three-year monitorship of Volkswagen AG imposed as part of the automaker’s $2.8 billion plea deal with the US Justice Department for cheating on diesel emissions tests.
Dubyak told Law360, "A lot of white-collar work is backward-looking, investigating what happened. Here, we were helping the company figure out how to prevent problems from happening in the future, advocating for the company, highlighting the work that had been done and identifying what else needed to be done."
Due to Volkwagen's global reach, Dubyak and the Steptoe team were tasked with sourcing information for the monitor while also assuaging fears the company had about handing over that information.
"We had to find a balance between being helpful to the monitors and making sure we protected the company's rights," Dubyak added.
At Steptoe, Dubyak concentrates her practice on white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and other regulatory inquiries. Her clients include both individuals and companies in the technology, life sciences, blockchain and cryptocurrency, and finance sectors. She has defended clients in a wide range of matters, including allegations of mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction, money laundering, and in violations related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, sanctions and export controls.
Katie also maintains an active pro bono practice, and has represented clients in death penalty, prisoners' rights, parole hearings, and other criminal justice matters.
The full profile on Dubyak can be read at Law360 (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, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
The diversity of the firm is a critical factor in its success. The firm’s Chair is a woman; the majority of Steptoe's nine offices are managed by women; the majority of Steptoe’s practice groups have women as leaders; and the firm’s twelve-person elected compensation committee is headed by a woman and includes five women as members. The firm's eight-person professional business services leadership is equally diverse, with half the c-suite made up of women, including three women of color, and other leaders who openly identify as LGBTQ+.