White Collar Representation
Since the 1980’s, Nolan, Armstrong & Barton has helped many Silicon
Valley employees and companies defend themselves against criminal charges
involving trade secret theft (Penal Code section 499c), computer crimes
(Penal Code section 502; 18 U.S.C. § 1030), securities violations (15 U.S.C.
§§ 78j(b), 78ff; 17 CFR 240.10b-5) import and export violations, false
statements charges (18 U.S.C. § 1001), mail fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1341), wire
fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343), money laundering (18 U.S.C. §§ 1956, 1957), tax
violations (26 U.S.C. §§ 7201, 7202, 7203, 7206, 7207) and other white
collar criminal prosecutions in state and federal courts.
Our firm
has handled numerous criminal investigations and jury trials involving the
alleged theft of trade secrets from high tech companies. Trade secret
prosecutions frequently involve an employee leaving one company to work for
a competitor or a start-up company in the same sector. Those in charge of
large companies discourage this type of movement, as employees have
tremendous value independent of the physical documents and software codes
they might possess. Sometimes, the former employer turns to criminal
authorities to intimidate and punish departing employees who possess
valuable technical knowledge.
Nolan, Armstrong & Barton has a long history of
successfully defending individuals in federal white collar prosecutions.
- Attorneys at the firm represented an engineer in
the first economic espionage case ever tried to a jury in federal
court. The firm secured not-guilty verdicts on charges of economic
espionage and trade secret theft, the jury hung heavily in favor of
acquittal on the two remaining espionage counts, while hanging on the
one additional charge of trade secret theft.
- The firm recently won a not-guilty verdict after a
lengthy court trial in the Central District of California in a case in
which our client, an engineer, was accused by the government of nine
counts of theft of trade secrets from one of the largest semiconductor
companies in the world.
- Firm attorneys also won an acquittal in federal
court on behalf of an individual accused of export violations. The
client's conviction for making false statements was later overturned on
appeal for insufficiency of evidence.
- In another case in the Northern District of
California, the firm won a favorable result at jury trial on behalf of
an employee of a leading technology company, and also successfully
represented the individual in a related SEC matter.
Nolan, Armstrong & Barton has also won numerous victories in state court
in white collar cases.
- In one case, after five years of litigation and
nearly five months of jury trial, our client, the founder of a
successful public company, was found not guilty on all charges relating
to alleged theft of trade secrets from a large
- The firm was also successful in representing an
engineer in court, at trial and on his subsequent appeal for theft of
trade secrets, where the erroneous conviction for theft of trade secrets
was set aside on appeal for the insufficiency of evidence.
- In a case in
- In
- Nolan, Armstrong & Barton also successfully
represented at trial a software engineer from one of the world's largest
technology companies who was accused of trade secret theft. The firm
also has a successful history in a securities fraud case in state court,
including winning acquittals at jury trial in
We know that in complex white collar, trade secret theft, and other business prosecutions, a successful defense requires a team approach. The three name partners have combined experience of over 90 years of criminal defense practice. With seven attorneys specializing in criminal defense, Nolan, Armstrong & Barton has the manpower and trial experience to handle even the most complex, technical, and document-intensive business crimes prosecution. We work in cooperation with forensic accountants, software engineers, investigators, and other professionals to obtain the broad range of expertise needed to present the most persuasive defense.