They’ve Got Next: White Collar Fresh Face Margot Laporte

By her third year at Miller & Chevalier, Margot Laporte had already proven herself as a meticulous investigator with the cross-cultural savvy to successfully represent overseas corporations and executives subject to U.S. law enforcement.

But last November, she surprised superiors and white-collar peers by getting a Swiss wealth manager’s indictment dismissed, bringing wider publicity to her practice that had primarily involved confidential matters.

“I think it’s an incredibly important decision,” said William Barry, who heads the white-collar practice at Miller & Chevalier. “I know it has been another important milestone for her, in part because it brings together a bunch of the things she has been doing in terms of an international client base and helping people navigate what’s a difficult system here.”

In her first year after making partner at Miller & Chevalier at the start of 2021, her advocacy for the Swiss client, Daisy Rafoi-Bleuler, led a federal judge in Texas to deal a rare setback to the Justice Department’s routine assertion of jurisdiction in charging foreign nationals for a role in a domestic bribery or money-laundering scheme.

The judge’s opinion defeated what had been a largely successful DOJ theory that non-U.S. citizens can be charged as agents of a U.S. company in conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In the same dismissal, Laporte also persuaded Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to reject the government’s argument that Rafoi-Bleuler is a fugitive who must be extradited to the U.S. until trial. Hoyt was moved by the logic in Laporte’s brief, sparking interest from other lawyers with overseas clients.

While she prepares to argue the case opposite DOJ prosecutors in the government’s appeal to the Fifth Circuit lawyers from competing firms have been reaching out with praise.

“It’s one of the few times in what I do that cases are publicly settled, and so I’m able to talk about the underlying facts,” Laporte said. “It’s nice to be able to share ideas with attorneys who are representing individuals in similar cases.”

She contextualized the case’s significance first through the perspective of her client, Daisy Rafoi-Bleuler, who’s had the prospect of imprisonment in the U.S. at least temporarily removed.

“To the extent that it establishes some precedent or helps others argue against similar cases on behalf of their foreign national clients, I think that’s important as well,” Laporte added, “and something I’ve been very happy to contribute to the conversation about.”

Her co-counsel Andrew Wise, who chairs Miller & Chevalier’s litigation department, said he initially gave the case “very little chance, given the precedent.”

“But Margot—she is a lawyer who puts her head down, gets into the facts of the precedent, gets into the facts of the present case, and then really has a great ability to synthesize not only what past courts have done but why they’ve done it,” Wise said.

The Rafoi-Bleuler outcome helped cement Laporte’s status in the internationally focused subset of white-collar defense. Laporte has excelled through her unique combination of intense preparation, grasp of the complex intersection of cross-border statutes, and empathy in building trust with clients at the most uncomfortable moments of their lives, her colleagues say.

It doesn’t hurt that Laporte is also fluent in French and proficient in Spanish.

“The human aspect” of advocating for individuals is quite gratifying, particularly if they’re foreign nationals who don’t understand the U.S. legal system and “feel that things are out of their control,” Laporte said.

A few years before she moved to her current firm in 2019, Laporte, then a seventh-year associate at Richards Kibbe & Orbe, was the prime interviewer of a corporate executive who was growing increasingly agitated by her line of questioning, said Barry, her co-counsel on the matter before he left for Miller & Chevalier. Barry declined to identify their client, the company’s board, or the executive.

“She remained really disciplined through the interview as this person kept saying to her, ‘You need to look at the evidence. Why are you asking me this question?’” said Barry.

“She kept walking him closer and closer until he just got sufficiently frustrated with her that he said, ‘Look, you should’ve been able to figure this out for yourself, but here’s the document that matters here.’”

In fact, Laporte already had the document and knew that it didn’t exist in the year he had falsely dated it. He was ultimately indicted and convicted, said Barry.

Laporte’s skills will be made uncharacteristically public when the Fifth Circuit hears the Rafoi-Bleuler appeal. Wise has a good idea how to leverage her talents next.

“She has been the primary driver in the writing of it, and she’s a wonderful oral advocate,” Wise said. “We have not yet had this conversation, but I fully imagine that she will be the one that’s standing in front of the Fifth Circuit doing the argument.”