Shawn Crowley > Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Shawn Crowley

(212) 763-0883 scrowley@kaplanhecker.com View profile

Work Department

Appellate Litigation; Cryptocurrency; Cybersecurity and Data Privacy; Employment, Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct; FCPA and Anti-Corruption; Investigations and Crisis Management; Public Interest Litigation; Regulatory Enforcement and Litigation; Securities Enforcement and Litigation; Trials; White Collar Criminal Defense

Position

Partner

Career

Shawn Crowley is an experienced trial lawyer at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, handling civil, criminal, and regulatory matters for both individuals and corporations. Shawn joined Kaplan Hecker after serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for over six years. Since joining the firm, Shawn has led a complex practice, representing individuals and corporations in sensitive and high-profile trials, investigations, complex litigation and internal and government-led investigations. 

Shawn’s diverse white-collar practice includes representing companies and individuals in connection with regulatory enforcement and criminal matters brought by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and state and local enforcement agencies. These matters and investigations have included, among other things, alleged insider trading, securities and wire fraud, sanctions evasion, money laundering, and diversion of controlled substances. Shawn has successfully advocated to various government agencies, including the Department of Justice and Securities & Exchange Commission, to decline to pursue charges against individual and institutional clients.  

Shawn also maintains a broad civil practice, including advising clients in matters concerning allegations of harassment and discrimination, as well as contractual and labor and employment disputes. She successfully represented E. Jean Carroll at her sexual assault and defamation trial against Donald Trump, resulting in a $5 million jury verdict in Carroll’s favor. She also represents the Democratic National Committee in multiple matters, including in connection with a criminal investigation and trial relating to the 2016 presidential election, as well as a defamation and civil RICO suit brought by former president Donald J. Trump.  

Her public interest work has included several groundbreaking cases, including representing ten plaintiffs in a lawsuit against twenty-five white supremacists and neo-Nazis, bringing claims based on their roles in organizing the racial and religious-based violence in Charlottesville during the summer of 2017. Kaplan Hecker secured a historic $26 million verdict for our clients in that case. Shawn was also a key member of the legal team representing professional women athletes who came forward about sexual harassment. She worked with her clients to institute long-overdue anti-harassment policies within a professional women’s sports league. Shawn and her team advised the league to adopt new policies, reviewed drafts policies, and provided feedback to make sure that players are protected and safe.   

Although not public, Shawn represents numerous individuals who were victims of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and child sexual abuse, helping them pursue civil claims and working with law enforcement.  

At the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Shawn spent three and a half years as a line assistant before being promoted to Deputy and then Co-Chief of the Narcotics Unit. In 2019, she became Co-Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, during which time she investigated, supervised, and prosecuted a variety of cases, including matters involving terrorism and national security offenses, sanctions violations, money laundering, cyber-terrorism, opioid diversion, and international narcotics trafficking. As Co-Chief of multiple units, she spent years supervising dozens of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, investigators, and other personnel in investigations, prosecutions, and trials involving a wide range of national security, drug trafficking, and white-collar offenses.  

Shawn received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. from Northwestern University. 

Education

• B.A., Northwestern University, 2006
• J.D., Columbia Law School, 2011