Jan Handzlik is an accomplished investigations and trial lawyer with a national and international practice. He represents individuals and companies in criminal investigations and prosecutions, regulatory actions and complex civil litigation. Jan coordinates parallel civil and regulatory proceedings with cross-border criminal investigations and conducts corporate internal investigations at home and abroad.
An experienced trial lawyer, Jan has tried well over one hundred jury trials and numerous bench trials to verdict in the US Federal and State courts. He is an internationally recognized authority on financial fraud, regulatory offenses and transnational crime, including securities fraud, money laundering, bank and tax fraud, RICO offenses and bribery under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act.
Jan served in the Major Fraud and Special Prosecutions Section of the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where he conducted grand jury investigations and prosecuted federal fraud cases at trial and on appeal. He is one of only a few defense lawyers to have successfully defended clients at trial in a major Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution and was one of the first independent law compliance monitors appointed under the FCPA.
Jan is recognized in all thirty editions of Best Lawyers in America, from 1983 through 2024. His firm is again named in Best Law Firms in America in its 2024 edition. Who’s Who Legal and Global Investigations Review, UK publications, have again named Jan a Global Leader for Investigations and Business Crime Defence, and a Who’s Who Legal Thought Leader: GIR 2024. Jan has been listed in the publication Super Lawyers for 20 years and is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-AVVO.
Among his many professional activities, Jan served as Chair of the American Bar Association’s National White Collar Crime Committee and Co-Chair of the International Bar Association’s Business Crime Committee.
Jan has been recognized in several national and international publications including, from 1983 through 2024, all thirty editions of Best Lawyers in America, the most respected U.S. peer review journals for the legal profession. Its companion publication, Best Law Firms in America, has again recognized Handzlik & Associates in its 2024 edition. The prestigious British publications, Who’s Who Legal and Global Investigations Review, both published by Law Business Research Ltd., U.K., have again recognized Jan as a Who’s Who Legal Thought Leader: GIR 2024 (United States). He is named as a Global Leader in two areas, Investigations and Business Crime Defence for both Corporates & Individuals. These respected publications identify law firms and “practitioners [who] are among the very best in the world in their respective fields, without exception.” Based on thousands of votes and nominations, Who’s Who and GIR rank Jan as one of the “world’s foremost…business crime defence…lawyers.” Jan has been recognized in Euromoney’s Expert Guides, published in the U.K. by Legal Media Group, as one of the leading white collar crime practitioners in the United States. California’s leading legal newspaper, The Daily Journal, named Jan one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in California,” an honor given to “the state’s most influential attorneys.” He also received a California Attorney of the Year Award (CLAY Award) from California Lawyer Magazine for “extraordinary achievement” in criminal law. In addition, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) presented Jan with its White-Collar Criminal Defense Award. The Criminal Courts Bar Association of Los Angeles honored Jan with the Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Memorial Award, presented for “exemplary commitment, exceptional skill and great achievement benefiting both his clients and the criminal justice community.” The Thomson Reuters’ publication, Super Lawyers, has recognized Jan as a leading white-collar criminal defense lawyer for 20 years. He received further recognition from The American Lawyer Magazine; Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers; and Martindale-AVVO, which ranks Jan as AV Preeminent.