Ira Raphaelson

Ira Raphaelson is one of a handful of lawyers who has been a senior executive and general counsel of public companies, independent director, law firm partner, Presidential appointee, career prosecutor, trial lawyer, and academic. Ira's extensive courtroom and boardroom experience in venues around the world make him a pragmatic and effective business and governance counselor, as well as strategic planner and advisor for bet-the-company litigation and market-entry. Ira adds his significant competition experience in compliance, litigation against government and private plaintiffs, and securing merger and joint purchasing approvals to the firm's globally recognized competition practice.

Since joining White & Case in January 2019, Ira has, among other things:

• assisted clients in assessing and updating compliance policies and training in antitrust, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Anti-Money Laundering, and Sanctions;
• provided strategic advice in both private and governmental litigation;
• advised Boards of Directors, General Counsel, and CEOs on special committee and monitorship issues;
• advised the CEO of a multi-national on restructuring and staffing of legal and compliance functions post-enforcement settlements;
• advised a number of gaming and diversified leisure clients on business opportunities, U.S. regulatory requirements, corporate structure, and cash management during government-mandated COVID shutdowns;
• advised a mortgage internet company on sanctions compliance; and
• helped advise a U.S. based multi-national on navigating employee discipline and access issues during a EU-based antitrust investigation.

As General Counsel of Las Vegas Sands Corp, Ira's presence and governance enhancements were cited as mitigating factors in settlements with the Justice Department, SEC, and Nevada Gaming Commission. His work included strategic oversight of related whistleblower and shareholder derivative cases as well as unrelated efforts to expand and defend the company's industry leading brand. These efforts included working with domestic gaming and other regulators, as well as those in Macau and Singapore. In addition, Ira assisted Sands' international development efforts in Spain, Korea, and Japan.

As General Counsel of Scientific Games Corp, Ira was responsible for governance matters and regulatory compliance in more than 50 countries throughout the world, with manufacturing facilities in the US, Canada, UK, Austria, Chile, and China. He also assisted the company in its entry into China.

As general counsel at both companies, Ira also served as Secretary to the Board and part of the senior executive team with regard to international expansion and marketing. At various times, he also oversaw aviation, compliance, government relations, human resources, internal audit, and security.

Among the legal issues Ira managed at both companies were extensive intellectual property portfolios and litigation around the world. Sands engaged in substantial litigation to protect its name in multiple countries around the globe. These efforts included protecting its name, iconic architecture, and even site appropriations for unlicensed, offshore, online gaming sites. At Scientific Games, in addition to overseeing IP due diligence in M&A, Ira supervised a large numbers of patent-related matters, including successful defense of its own patents against an array of challenges, including Walker Process. During his tenure at Scientific Games, Ira also became a trusted advisor to the US state and overseas lotteries on the question of cross-border, online gaming and the impact of emerging technology on biometric identification and geo-location.

Both as a general counsel and as a private practitioner, Ira had extensive experience designing and overseeing human resource policies including those involving whistleblowing and sexual harassment. As part of that work, he conducted dozens of internal investigations – a topic about which he serves as a frequent lecturer at legal continuing education conferences and law schools.

As an international law firm partner, he co-chaired his prior firm's white collar practice and advised numerous multi-national companies on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-money laundering (AML), False Claims Act (FCA), sanctions, and competition issues, as well as defending individual senior government officials and corporate executives. A nationally recognized authority and lecturer on the FCPA, he conducted numerous investigations and negotiated resolutions for clients around the world. Ira represented clients in some of the largest health care cases and in the accounting cases leading up to the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley law. He has advised some of the world's largest financial institutions on market entry and anti-money laundering compliance serving as part of the team that secured PRC and US government approvals for the entry of the first US investment bank into China. Ira also tried eight RICO matters to juries, including two as a private practitioner.

Among other matters in competition law, Ira successfully argued for the dissolution of the New England Dairy (Agri-Mark) consent decree over the objections of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and secured DOJ approval of a joint purchasing agreement between nuclear power plant competitors. As a general counsel, he worked with White & Case teams in the successful acquisition of a competitor in a 4-3 consolidation, acquisition in UK as part of a consolidation, and the successful defense of the Italian lottery contract award in the Italian courts and ECJ.

As a career prosecutor, Ira tried numerous high-profile fraud and corruption matters and also served as US Attorney for nine months in Chicago. He was eventually tapped by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the US Senate to supervise all financial institution criminal and civil matters for the Justice Department as Special Counsel for Financial Institutions, where he also served as Counsel to the Attorney General from 1991-93. As Special Counsel for Financial Institutions, he personally represented the US Government in court to obtain a US$1.2 billion forfeiture against BCCI, which was used, in part, to prevent the collapse of First American Bank.

In addition to his role as Senior Counsel, Ira served six years as lead independent director of NASDAQ-listed Inspired Entertainment (where he remains Chair of the Nomination, Governance, & Compliance Committee) and four years as an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, where he taught a graduate law course on all legal aspects of businesses entering foreign markets (e.g., competition, anti-corruption, sanctions, privacy, IP, corporate structure and governance, cybersecurity, tax, labor, corporate finance, repatriation, and real estate) and now serves as a guest lecturer.