Rebecca Mermelstein is a first-chair trial lawyer with extensive experience handling white collar and finance-related investigations and litigation. She advises corporate and individual clients on complex white collar matters, including regulatory actions, internal investigations, and compliance initiatives.
Prior to joining O’Melveny, Rebecca spent more than a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She was a senior member of the Securities and Commodities Task Force before rising to Co-Chief of the General Crimes Unit. Rebecca has tried 12 cases to verdict, briefed and argued numerous federal appeals, and conducted or supervised more than 1,000 investigations, including grand jury investigations and cross-border matters involving simultaneous investigations by multiple U.S. and international regulators. Her expertise spans securities and accounting fraud, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, money laundering, cybercrime, public corruption, human trafficking, and sexual misconduct.
Through her work leading investigations and prosecutions, Rebecca has established strong working relationships with U.S. Attorney’s Office colleagues and officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, as well as federal law enforcement agencies. The knowledge she has gained from her experience and relationships helps her achieve the best possible results for clients.
- Represent a global commodities trading company in a wide-ranging FCPA investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and Main Justice involving alleged conduct in South America.
Government Experience
- Supervised dozens of jury trials and more than 1,000 cases involving securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, access device fraud, cybercrime, immigration offenses, child exploitation, human trafficking, robbery, narcotics trafficking, and firearms offenses.
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- New York
Court Admissions
- United States District Court, Southern District of New York
Education
- Harvard Law School J.D., 2005: cum laude
- Columbia College, B.A., Comparative Religion, 2001: magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa
Honors & Awards
- Recommended by The Legal 500 US for Corporate Investigations and White-Collar Criminal Defense (2024)
Professional Activities
Publications
- "Turning the Tables on DOJ: Individual Defendants Wield Corporate Criminal Enforcement Policies Against the Government," New York Law Journal (Mar. 6, 2023)
Clerkship
- Honorable Charles P. Sifton, Eastern District of New York