Women in Law 2024

2024

SHOBA PILLAY PARTNER Jenner & Block LLP

F rom cyber-attacks and the theft of trade secrets to the risks of foreign influence and corruption, Shoba Pillay helps businesses understand, prepare for, investigate, and litigate a range of internal and external threats. Shoba is a former federal prosecutor with extensive trial and investigations experience who leads complex and high-stakes internal and government-facing investigations and advises her clients in developing robust regulatory compliance programs. As a corporate crisis manager, Shoba leverages her technical acumen, national security experience, and understanding of the national security threat landscape to provide clients with advice on preparing for high-risk and sensitive crises, managing and navigating the aftermath, and handling regulatory compliance and litigation. Among her most notable accomplishments, Shoba served as the court-appointed Examiner in I n re Celsius Network LLC, et al. , in which Celsius Networks paused all customer transfers and withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy. She led a team in this high-profile investigation to build two reports detailing the fraud and internal controls failures that led to the company’s bankruptcy. Additionally, Shoba conducted an internal review and produced a major public report for the Chicago Blackhawks, investigating allegations that a player was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach, led multiple internal reviews involving a range of allegations, including employment discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, toxic workplace, bribery, and fraud. She also provides cybersecurity and insider threat risk mitigation counseling and has led multiple cybersecurity incident responses in a range of industries.

Shoba is an active member Jenner & Block’s Women’s Forum, where she has been involved in fostering opportunities for the professional growth of the firm’s women lawyers. In this role, she coaches them on issues ranging from best practices for leading a client team to serving in leadership roles within the firm. Understanding the importance of fostering the next generation of lawyers, Shoba has dedicated herself to mentoring women at Jenner. As a federal prosecutor, Shoba gained substantial experience with complex investigations and prosecutions involving cybercrime, complex fraud, human trafficking, theft of trade secrets, terrorism, espionage, and export control and international sanctions violations. Among her significant trials during her eleven years in the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois, Shoba prosecuted a theft of trade secrets case involving a Chinese competitor, the computer intrusion of a Fortune 500 company, and the illegal export of technical data to China. She was honored with the Department of Justice John Marshall Award from the Attorney General in 2022. Shoba serves as a Co-Chair of Jenner & Block’s Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice, Co- Chair of the firm’s National Security and Crisis Practice, and Co- Chair of the Post-Dobbs Task Force. She is an adjunct professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where she teaches a course on trial advocacy, and the University of Illinois College of Law, where she teaches a course on cyber law. Shoba was a member of the 2018 cohort of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Emerging Leaders Program and the 2019 cohort of the German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial Fellowship.

WOMEN IN LAW 2024