Ethical Challenges Facing Prosecutors And Defense Attorneys In Ethical Challenges Facing Prosecutors And Defense Attorneys In White-Collar Cases

• Published date: 27 May 2025
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Criminal Law, Technology, Corporate and Company Law, Trials & Appeals & Compensation, White Collar Crime, Anti-Corruption & Fraud, Fin Tech
• Law Firm: Cohen & Gresser
• Author: Mark Cohen and Sri Kuehnlenz

1. INTRODUCTION

Good evening, I'm Mark Cohen, a founding partner of Cohen & Gresser LLP, a criminal defense attorney, and a former federal prosecutor who served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. I want to begin first by thanking the Dean, Professor Christian Johnson, the faculty and the Widener Commonwealth Law School for inviting me to speak here today. It is an honor to be delivering the Justice William Strong lecture this year, particularly given the weight of Justice Strong's jurisprudence in criminal justice.

One of Justice Strong's most notable opinions is Strauder v. West Virginia, an 1880 case where a Black man was convicted in West Virginia by an all-white jury.¹ Justice Strong, writing for the majority, held that a state law restricting juror eligibility to white men violated the Fourteenth Amendment because it deprived the defendant of "immunity from inequality of legal protection, either for life, liberty, or property."² As this case and Justice Strong's other jurisprudence demonstrates, he was strongly committed to ensuring the fair and equal administration of justice. I submit that is something that prosecutors and defense attorneys alike strive to do in their day-to-day practice.

Toward that end, this lecture focuses on the ethical challenges that white-collar attorneys on both sides face. I will begin by addressing these...