"Lily's pragmatism and solution-driven approach produces exceptional results. She is a fantastic lawyer."
Chambers USA 2022
Having spent decades working alongside and opposed to government regulators, Lily Chinn deftly guides tech, energy and manufacturing clients through environmental, workplace safety, trust & safety, and corporate governance issues. Whether as standalone or intersecting concerns, she advises companies on how to strengthen compliance programs to minimize risk and negotiates favorable resolutions to complex government investigations. As a skilled advocate, she does not hesitate to litigate civil or criminal matters to verdict.
Clients rely on Lily's ability to help them avoid or guide them through a crisis with their reputation intact. As noted in Chambers USA (2022), "Her demeanor is always calm and forthright. She is very collaborative and clear in her communication. She is responsive, professional and thinks outside the box." To provide high-level, thoughtful counsel, Lily draws on her many years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental Defense Section, and as a prosecutor in the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section. Familiar with government decision-making processes, Lily crafts strategies that are grounded in substantive, technical knowledge, while developing practical solutions that resonate with government regulators. Her track record of complex appellate and district court cases across the country has earned her national recognition.
Through her work on both court ordered and voluntary corporate monitorship teams, Lily has analyzed corporate compliance programs and worked with companies ranging from a Fortune 500 publicly owned travel and leisure company to a privately held subscription-based internet content provider to develop effective, right-sized solutions that reduce enforcement risk.
In a range of high-profile federal and state investigations, Lily has successfully obtained hard-won declinations of criminal charges. For example, following a five-year joint investigation by the DOJ, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and a State Attorney General's Office, she obtained a declination for her client of all federal criminal and civil charges. In two other cases, Lily developed novel legal arguments targeted at first of their kind federal criminal charges under the Clean Air Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, resulting in rare pre-trial dismissals of lead counts of the indictments.