Karl Buch

Career

Karl Buch, national co-chair of DLA Piper’s Global Investigations focusing on white collar criminal matters, government and regulatory investigations, and civil litigation.

Bringing years of experience as a federal prosecutor, in-house lawyer, and law firm partner, Karl represents companies and advises corporate boards in high-stakes investigations and special matters. Clients seek out Karl for his ability to de-risk complex situations in US and ex-US markets and resolve complex disputes with government offices and other counterparties. Most immediately, Karl joined DLA Piper from Pfizer, where he was an Assistant General Counsel in the Government Investigations group. At Pfizer, Karl’s responsibilities included managing government and regulatory investigations across the company's global operations. He interacted with prosecutors' offices in the US and abroad regarding a variety of areas of law, among them anti-bribery, anti-kickback, tax, and environment matters. He also managed numerous civil matters involving whistleblowers and claims that the company violated federal and state false claims acts and other consumer protection statutes.

Karl has also represented a variety of companies in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, medical device, technology, and industrial sectors. He has directed many internal and government-facing investigations on behalf of his clients in the US (many of these being whistleblower actions, qui tams, or anti-kickback cases) and in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East (many of these being anti-bribery/anti-corruption cases), bringing these to successful closure. He also regularly advises on potential violations of the FCPA, the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Statute.

Earlier in his career, Karl was as Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, Criminal Division. As a federal prosecutor, Karl was a member of the Office's Securities and Health Care Fraud Unit, where he prosecuted individuals and corporations for criminal violations of federal healthcare, securities, bank and tax laws. In 2007, he was awarded the FBI Director's Award.