Robert W. Tarun

Robert W. Tarun (robertwtarun@gmail.com) is an American trial lawyer, writer and student of 19th and the first half of the 20th century courthouse architecture. He has tried over fifty federal jury trials across the country. He has conducted more than one hundred sensitive internal investigations in the United States and over sixty foreign countries. He has counseled public companies on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, corporate governance, criminal antitrust, and other white collar criminal matters. He has conducted anti-bribery training for multinational corporations on five continents. Mr. Tarun has represented and defended U.S. and foreign corporations and executives in federal grand jury investigations, Securities and Exchange Commission proceedings, commercial litigation and in trials in twenty states. These matters have involved conspiracy, criminal antitrust (price fixing and bid rigging), export violations, financial fraud, FCPA charges, health care fraud, import violations, mail and wire fraud, securities fraud (accounting, insider trading, and revenue recognition), and tax fraud (U.S. and offshore) allegations. He has visited over one hundred American courthouses.

Mr. Tarun has represented multinational companies and executives in sensitive matters in the following foreign jurisdictions: Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Lichtenstein, Macau, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Turks & Caicos, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

Mr. Tarun served as a federal prosecutor for nearly a decade in Chicago, where he was Deputy Chief of the Criminal Receiving and Appellate Division from 1979 to 1982 and the Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1982 to 1985. In 1993 he co-authored and thereafter updated the treatise Corporate Internal Investigations (Law Journal Press 1993–2017). He also published in London “An American trial lawyer’s view of an Old Bailey trial,” 143 New Law Journal No. 6609 (July 16, 1993). In 2010, Mr. Tarun first authored The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Handbook: A Practical Guide for Multinational General Counsel, Transactional Lawyers and White-Collar Criminal Practitioners. In 2010, he, along with Peter P. Tomczak, wrote the Introductory Essay for the 25th Anniversary White Collar Crime Survey—A Proposal for a United States Department of Justice Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Leniency Policy, 47 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 153 (Spring 2010). In 2018 Mr. Tomczak joined him as co-author of the Fifth Edition of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Handbook.

In 1992, Mr. Tarun was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, chaired its Federal Criminal Procedure Committee from 1999 to 2002, and served on its Board of Regents from 2003 to 2008. He drafted the College’s Report on the Proposed Codification of Disclosure of Favorable Information Under Federal Rules of Criminal Procedures 11 and 16, 41 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 93 (Winter 2003) and served as the Regent Liaison for its report Recommended Practices for Companies and Their Counsel in Conducting Internal Investigations, 46 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 73 (Winter 2009). Mr. Tarun is a graduate of Stanford University (B.A.), DePaul University (J.D.), the University of Chicago (M.B.A.). and New York University (M.F.A.). From 2000 to 2005, he taught “White Collar Criminal Practice” as a Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He has served on the planning committee of the American Bar Association National Institute on White Collar Crime, has chaired, or has been a regular panelist at its annual meetings, as well as presented at the ABA/IBA International Cartel Workshops and to the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office in London. He is a founder of the Wong Sun Society of San Francisco (1992).

Mr. Tarun has been listed in Best Lawyers in America® (Commercial Litigation and White Collar Criminal Defense), Chambers USA America’s Leading Business Lawyers (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and White Collar Criminal Defense), The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers—Business Crime Defense, Who’s Who Legal Investigations, The 100 Top Lawyers in Illinois, Who’s Who Legal Illinois Leading Business Lawyers, and Who’s Who Legal California Leading Business Lawyers. The Ethisphere Institute, a leading independent think tank, named Mr. Tarun to its original annual Top Guns List, a national list of 15 white-collar criminal attorneys who are leaders in assisting corporations in effectively handling corporate compliance issues. In 2012 he was appointed the Independent Corporate Monitor for AU Optronics Corporation and AU Optronics America, corporate defendants in the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) industry price fixing prosecution, United States v. AU Optronics Corp., No. CR 09-0110 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 20, 2012). He was the first corporate monitor in a U.S. criminal antitrust case. He has also served as an expert and consultant to the legal and compliance departments of Fortune 500 companies. Best Lawyers in America® through peer review recognized Mr. Tarun as the 2017 White Collar Lawyer of the Year in San Francisco. He is admitted to practice before the California and Illinois bars, numerous federal circuit courts of appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.