Alicia N. Washington

Alicia N. Washington is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s Litigation Department, a member of the Firm’s Government and Internal Investigations Practice and co-leads Simpson Thacher’s Equity and Civil Rights Reviews team. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Alicia represents companies, boards and executives in government and internal investigations and high-profile disputes.

Prior to joining the Firm, Alicia served in the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. There, she was a member of the Public Integrity Section, and also served as a member of the International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section as well as the General Crimes Section. As a federal prosecutor, Alicia investigated and prosecuted some of the Eastern District’s most significant cases involving an array of different crimes, including public corruption, money laundering, civil rights, narcotics, violent, firearms, child exploitation and immigration crimes. She also has significant experience partnering and working with various federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, IRS and the NYC Department of Investigation. Alicia was honored with an award in 2016 For Outstanding Performance Assisting Foreign Authorities for her work on an extradition to Montserrat.

Alicia’s representative experience while at Simpson Thacher includes:

• Public company in connection with SEC inquiry into public offering;
• Global investment firm in internal investigation;
• Special Committee of the Board of global technology company in internal investigation;
• Nielsen and certain of its current and former officers in putative securities class action;
• Berkshire Hathaway in multi-defendant False Claims Act litigation;
• Volvo in obtaining favorable New York Court of Appeals decision clarifying the law in the area of product liability for defective design;
• State agency in connection with nonparty subpoena in litigation involving allegations of public corruption; and
• Pro bono client in winning SDNY trial involving Section 1983 and New York statutory claims.

Alicia previously served as lead counsel on behalf of the United States in jury trials, and argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Select investigation and prosecution experience prior to joining Simpson Thacher includes:

• Public officials, law enforcement officers and other individuals in cases involving allegations of corruption, bribery, embezzlement, fraud and civil rights violations;
• Large-scale narcotics trafficking organizations principally based in Mexico, Colombia and other South American countries for money laundering and narcotics trafficking offenses that spanned across the U.S. and other countries; 
• U.S.-based defendants for money laundering offenses within the U.S. on behalf of drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico;
• Corrupt law enforcement officials alleged to have engaged in narcotics trafficking offenses, including the indictment of a former Mexican state attorney general for his involvement in international narcotics trafficking;
• Narcotics trafficking defendant extradited from Guyana in 2020, the first extradition of a defendant from Guyana to the U.S. to face federal charges in more than 20 years;
• Staten Island-based narcotics trafficking ring that conspired to distribute opioids and engaged in healthcare fraud;
• 20 defendants charged with conspiring to bribe correction officers at Rikers Island;
• Local NYC official for accepting bribe;
• Doctor employed by city agency charged with theft of funds; 
• Dual citizen of Mexico and Canada for conspiring to distribute fentanyl, which involved the second largest seizure of fentanyl by the DEA at the time;
• Colombian veterinarian for narcotics trafficking crime; and
• Individual charged with defrauding dozens of advertising agencies and beverage distilleries.

Alicia currently serves on the Parish Pastoral Council for St. Charles Borromeo Church in Brooklyn, New York as well as on the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Film Committee. She is also on the Board of Trustees for John Jay College Foundation, Inc. and the White Collar Editorial Advisory Board for Law360. Alicia received her B.A., with honors, from Yale University, and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she served as Executive Editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Alicia was a law clerk to the Hon. Barbara M. G. Lynn of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.