Firm

Ryan McConnell Partner

Ryan McConnell is a former federal prosecutor and trial lawyer who represents companies, boards, and executives in high-stakes criminal, civil, and governance matters. He is called when litigation risk, regulatory exposure, and institutional credibility intersect.

Ryan has tried nearly twenty federal jury trials and conducted hundreds of investigations involving complex fraud, cross-border enforcement, and sensitive regulatory issues. His practice focuses on federal criminal defense, complex civil litigation, internal investigations, and advising boards and senior executives on governance issues and matters requiring judgment under pressure.

Ryan served as lead trial counsel in U.S. v. Rovirosa, a federal criminal prosecution brought by the Department of Justice’s Fraud Section under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The matter was the first FCPA case tried post-Trump and one of only a small number of FCPA cases ever tried to verdict.

Before founding his firm, Ryan was a partner at three international law firms, where he handled a broad range of complex civil and criminal litigation and led internal investigations across industries and jurisdictions. His civil litigation experience includes civil fraud, antitrust, securities, and derivative litigation; D&O and fiduciary-duty matters; shareholder and partnership disputes; and complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts nationwide. He has represented clients in parallel civil, criminal, and regulatory proceedings and achieved favorable resolutions in matters involving the Department of Justice and other enforcement authorities.

Ryan is a trusted advisor to boards and senior executives on governance issues arising from criminal and regulatory matters, leadership transitions, and emerging risk. In 2025, he was appointed pursuant to a New York state court order in Manhattan to advise the National Rifle Association on governance matters. He has also participated for nearly a decade in Stanford University’s Directors’ College, a forum for board-level education.

Earlier in his career, Ryan served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Louisiana and Houston as part of the Organized Crime Strike Force. In that role, he tried numerous federal criminal cases to verdict, ranging from complex fraud to violent offenses, and conducted large-scale grand jury investigations of international scope.

Ryan has long been active in legal education. He is a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, where he teaches corporate compliance and governance, and has previously taught criminal procedure and national security law. While at the Department of Justice, Ryan taught trial advocacy and other courses to state and federal prosecutors.

He began his legal career at Shearman & Sterling LLP in New York City and as a law clerk to Judge John C. Godbold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.