Derrelle M. Janey

Derrelle focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense, securities, financial services, and health care litigation and complex commercial disputes. He regularly represents high-profile individuals and companies facing criminal, civil and regulatory exposure, including proceedings that pose significant legal and reputational risk.

He brings depth in the financial services and health care sectors, advising and defending broker-dealers, investment advisers, hedge funds and other market participants in matters involving allegations of securities fraud, fraud-based financial conspiracies and other complex financial schemes. Clients value his ability to distill complex issues into practical strategies and to serve as a trusted advocate during critical moments.

Derrelle has extensive courtroom and trial experience and regularly appears in state and federal courts nationwide. His matters have included defending clients in major white-collar prosecutions, resolving SEC investigations before enforcement actions and litigating complex civil disputes through trial and post-judgment proceedings.

Derrelle is counsel of record for Aron Govil in the critical securities law case SEC v. Govil on remand from the Second Circuit to the Southern District of New York, which is poised to redefine how disgorgement is evaluated in the face of malfeasance by corporate insiders. He also served as defense counsel in the largest automotive-oriented private equity fund fraud case in U.S. history, brought by the SEC, and as co-defense counsel in the parallel federal criminal action indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. In 2018, he co-led the Ponzi scheme trial of sports radio talk show host Craig Carton, achieving a substantially reduced sentence from the government’s recommendation.

Derrelle has become a leading lawyer for individuals and wholesale distributors in the health care industry, handling complex civil matters involving infringement and counterfeit product allegations brought by large pharmaceutical companies, as well as federal prosecutions under health care fraud statutes. He has successfully blocked asset-seizure attempts by major pharmaceutical companies and defeated civil RICO and fraud claims. In 2022, he co-led the historic criminal trial of Larry Doud, the former CEO of Rochester Drug Cooperative, who was charged with drug trafficking involving a controlled substance.

Prior to joining Olshan, Derrelle was the founder and managing partner of the Janey Law Firm P.C., where he represented both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil and criminal matters nationwide. Earlier in his career, he gained valuable experience at a New York criminal defense boutique and through his work with the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, which provided him with meaningful insight into financial institutions and regulatory frameworks.

Representative Matters Where Derrelle Has Led or Co-Led

• Representing the chief executive officer of a $2 billion revenue drug distributor charged criminally by the Department of Justice with drug trafficking based on his company’s sale of controlled substances in the face of alleged “red flags” of diversion in a federal trial.
• Representing high profile defendant charged criminally by the Department of Justice in a Ponzi scheme conspiracy in a federal trial.
• Representing a bankruptcy trustee on behalf of a broker-dealer against the BDs former officers and managers on claims of fraudulent conveyance in a federal trial.

• Represented wholesale healthcare product distributors sued by large pharmaceutical companies alleging fraud, racketeering, trademark infringement and trafficking in counterfeit product.
• Represented senior private equity executive in parallel federal criminal and SEC enforcement actions alleging conspiracy to commit fraud and, in connection therewith, filed stay motions in 10 related civil actions across the United States.
• Represented foreign exchange trader in a global rate fixing probe.

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Honors & Recognitions

• Named by the Board of Judges to serve on the Magistrate Judge Selection Committee for the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 2024
• Named annually to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list, a Thomson Reuters lawyer rating service, since 2022
• Consistently named a “Rising Star” by New York Metro Super Lawyers, 2015-2021

• Recognized as one of America’s Top 100 “High Stakes” Litigators
• Named among the Lawyers of Distinction’s “Power Lawyers” by The New York Times, 2021-2022
• Named among the 22 “Distinguished Leaders” in the New York Legal Industry by the New York Law Journal, 2017