Omer N. Farukhi practices in the Firm’s Complex Litigation, Pharmaceutical Products, Toxic Torts & Products Liability, Environmental, Investigations, Financial Institutions, and White Collar Defense groups where he participates in representing the Firm’s core clients, including major global pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, agricultural companies, construction and engineering companies, and government contractors.
Mr. Farukhi currently serves on the trial team for a multi-party, complex engineering and construction matter involving the representation of a major contractor in Arkansas state court for claims arising from the design and construction of a billion dollar chemical plant. He also currently represents an international development contractor in arbitration before the American Arbitration Association’s International Center for Dispute Resolution arising from breach of contract and fraud claims involving an overseas supply chain logistics subcontractor.
Mr. Farukhi has extensive litigation and trial experience, including experience with dispositive and procedural motions. He prepares expert and fact witnesses to testify in depositions and at trial. He also conducts fact investigations and witness interviews for written discovery, depositions, and trial preparation.
Mr. Farukhi represents clients in criminal litigation and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal enforcement agencies. He has defended against various maritime and environmental criminal liabilities arising from violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. He was involved in extensive discovery and motions practice to secure the dismissal of a federal criminal indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He is experienced in white collar criminal defense involving Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment issues, including matters involving habeas corpus situations, search and seizure, and Miranda warnings.
Mr. Farukhi has comprehensive experience with federal sentencing and guidelines, including deferred prosecution agreements, corporate compliance, suspension and debarment from federal programs and contracts, and enforcement of corporate integrity agreements. He has also represented companies facing parallel investigations, prosecutions, and litigation of the same fact issues by federal, state, and foreign country agencies and authorities.
Mr. Farukhi defends major pharmaceutical clients in federal and state courts as well as in multidistrict litigation (MDL). He has managed the discovery process and drafted pleadings and responses to discovery requests. In addition, he has been involved in the transfer and removal of cases to and from MDLs for discovery and trial as well as with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
Additionally, Mr. Farukhi is part of the defense team representing a global agricultural company in litigation centralized in federal district court for the Northern District of California as well as in California and Missouri state courts. He handles the retention and preparation of scientific and expert witnesses to testify at depositions and trial, along with expert witness preparation and strategy for Daubert hearings and trials.
Mr. Farukhi previously served as a Fraud Surveillance Analyst at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), now part of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), in the Market Regulation Department, where he investigated broker-dealers regarding suspicious trading patterns and activity. He has also defended against SEC enforcement and investigations under the federal securities laws, including the Investment Company Act of 1940. He represented a major mutual fund in defense of the SEC's and New York Attorney General's investigation in 2003 of the mutual fund scandal related to market timing and late trading.
Mr. Farukhi earned his degree in Finance with a concentration in Law from Lehigh University. He received his law degree from The Catholic University of America-Columbus School of Law, where he served as Vice Chancellor of the Moot Court Association and was a member of the Moot Court Association’s National Trials Team. During law school, he served as a supervised prosecutor in the State’s Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County, Maryland, as well as a law clerk in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where he assisted with the prosecution of cases involving terrorism and national security.