Biography
Kara Brockmeyer is a litigation partner in the firm’s Washington D.C. office, and is a member of the White Collar & Regulatory Defense and Strategic Crisis Response and Solutions Groups.
Ms. Brockmeyer is a recognized international expert on the FCPA and corporate compliance programs. She is said to possess “enviable experience in major anticorruption investigations” and “expertise counseling clients on FCPA compliance programs.” Ms. Brockmeyer is also recommended by The Legal 500 US (2021) and by The Legal 500 Latin America (2023), where she is said to have “an excellent ability to simplify and manage the most complex cases and situations in an efficient and clear manner.”
Since joining Debevoise in 2017, Ms. Brockmeyer has advised numerous public companies, senior executives and other clients in government investigations and internal investigations, with a particular focus on anti-corruption and accounting issues.
Ms. Brockmeyer is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the firm’s monthly FCPA Update newsletter, and is the vice-chair of the IBA’s Anti-Corruption Committee’s Non-Trial Resolutions Subcommittee. She is also co-chair of the DC Bar Association’s SEC Enforcement Committee.
Ms. Brockmeyer joined Debevoise after a seventeen-year career at the SEC, including five and a half years as the Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit, where she directed a nationwide team of attorneys and forensic accountants investigating violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. During her tenure as chief of the unit, she oversaw more than 200 investigations, including many of the agency’s largest and most complex FCPA investigations, and oversaw more than two dozen corporate monitors and independent compliance consultants on behalf of the government. She was also one of the principal authors of the first SEC-DOJ Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which is widely considered the definitive government-issued guide on the FCPA.
Over her career at the SEC, including five years as an assistant director, Ms. Brockmeyer supervised more than 300 investigations, including leading and personally conducting major investigations in all areas of SEC enforcement, including financial reporting and accounting fraud, broker-dealer and investment adviser violations, and insider trading. She was the recipient of numerous awards while at the SEC, including the SEC’s Meritorious Impact Award, Irving M. Pollack Award, and Capital Markets Award. Before joining the SEC, Ms. Brockmeyer was in private practice in Chicago.
Ms. Brockmeyer earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, magna cum laude, where she was also Note Editor of the Michigan Law Review. She received her B.A. from Williams College, cum laude.
