Professional experience
Bill Mateja is a Principal in the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson P.C. Prior to joining the Firm in January 2005, he served as Senior Counsel to U.S. Deputy Attorneys General Larry Thompson and James Comey in Washington, D.C., where he also served as point person for the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force while also overseeing the Justice Department's white collar, health care fraud, and corporate fraud efforts. Mr. Mateja also served as the Justice Department's Special Counsel for Health Care Fraud, and chaired the Attorney General's working group on sentencing policy.

Mr. Mateja is a highly regarded trial attorney who uses his 13 years of experience with the Justice Department in Texas and Washington, D.C., coupled with over 20 years of legal experience, to successfully represent companies and individuals in "high stakes" government and internal investigations, civil enforcement actions, lawsuits, and criminal prosecutions across the country involving a broad array of subject matters, including corporate accountability, fraud and abuse, securities investigations and litigation, health care fraud, and government regulatory matters and investigations. He represents clients before the SEC, various U.S. Attorney's Offices, the Texas Attorney General, local district attorney's offices, and numerous other federal, state, and local governmental authorities. Almost immediately after returning to private practice, he was selected as a Texas Super Lawyer in the area of white collar criminal defense for 2006 and 2008. D Magazine selected Mr. Mateja as one of the "Best Lawyers in Dallas" for 2008.

As Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General in 2003 and 2004, Mr. Mateja supervised the Justice Department's efforts in a number of high-profile corporate fraud prosecutions, such as Enron, World Com, Health South, Homestore.Com, Computer Associates, Credit Lyonnais, McKesson HBOC, Reliant Corporation, Symbol Technologies, Adelphia, and Rite Aid. Cataloguing these efforts is the Corporate Fraud Task Force's First and Second Year Reports to the President, which Mr. Mateja personally authored as the Task Force's point person. These reports may be viewed at www.usdoj.gov/dag/cftf/.

As DOJ's Special Counsel for Health Care Fraud in 2004, Mr. Mateja oversaw the Justice Department's civil and criminal health care fraud efforts. As a result of his efforts, the Justice Department reaffirmed health care fraud as a top white collar crime priority and instituted a number of high-profile health care fraud prosecutions, particularly in the area of pharmaceuticals. One such prosecution resulted in what was then the second largest criminal fine in a health care fraud case ($240 million), and the conviction of Warner-Lambert's Parke-Davis pharmaceutical division in connection with its illegal promotion of off-label uses for Neurontin, an anti-seizure drug. Another prosecution resulted in the conviction of Schering Sales Corp., the sales and marketing subsidiary of drug manufacturer Schering-Plough Corporation, and payment by Schering-Plough of over $340 million in criminal and civil fines. This prosecution centered on Schering's fraudulent pricing of Claritin, its blockbuster allergy medication.

In 2003, Mr. Mateja supervised DOJ's violent crime efforts, which included oversight over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Project Safe Neighborhoods, President George W. Bush's comprehensive, strategic approach to reducing gun crime in America.

Mr. Mateja served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Texas beginning in 1991. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Mateja prosecuted and tried to jury many of the most significant white collar crime and corruption cases arising out of the Northern District. Mr. Mateja received the 2001 Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys' Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. He also received a number of other awards for outstanding work as a federal prosecutor from various federal and state law enforcement agencies, including the prestigious Texas Department of Public Safety's Director's Award.

Representative matters
Since joining the Firm in 2005, many companies and individuals have sought out Mr. Mateja's counsel to represent them in "high stakes" matters. Catalogued below are a few such matters which illustrate the diverse interests he has represented in connection with a broad array of subject matters before numerous courts and governmental authorities:

• Represented the interests of Missouri's governor in connection with a federal investigation regarding unsubstantiated allegations of political patronage
  
  
• Represented a Dallas-Ft. Worth DME company and its president in a federal criminal health care fraud prosecution
  
  
• Represented a major, publicly-traded medical provider and leading home- and community-based service provider to the mentally ill in a joint federal/state whistleblower lawsuit alleging millions of dollars in damages
  
  
• Counseled numerous companies on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and federal export laws
  
  
• Counseled numerous companies on compliance with the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  
  
• Represented a West Texas agribusiness in a major criminal and civil False Claims Act prosecution and investigation
  
  
• Represented the former Chairman of the Board of Motient, Inc., before the Delaware Chancery Court in a shareholder derivative action
  
  
• Represented Jonathan D. Nelson, former CFO of Patterson-UTI, Inc., in an appeal from his conviction and sentence resulting from the embezzlement of $78 million from Patterson-UTI
  
  
• Served as a AAA arbitrator in an arbitration involving a hospital and claims administrator
  
  
• Represented a West Texas hospital in connection with a federal whistleblower investigation
  
  
• Represented a $900 million manufacturing concern in connection with parallel criminal and SEC investigations involving allegations of accounting fraud and self-dealing
  
  
• Represented significant business concerns in connection with insurance coverage disputes
  
  
• Represented a physician and a company executive in connection with separate federal anti-kickback investigations involving consulting agreements and medical device companies
  
  
• Represented Atrium Companies, Inc., in suing a vendor and company insiders alleged to have short-shipped millions in packaging materials
  
  
• Represented Innovation First, Inc., in suing the Dominion Multiple Employer Welfare Benefit Trust and American General Life Insurance Company, among others, in connection with Innovation First’s participation in the Trust
  
  
• Represented numerous business interests, including a Fortune 500 company, in referring matters to various criminal authorities throughout the country for criminal prosecution
  
  
• Represented an ambulance company in a federal Medicare/Medicaid fraud investigation and prosecution
  
  
• Counseled a debt consolidation business on compliance matters, including compliance with various FTC regulations
  
  
• Represented a physician in a federal criminal health care fraud investigation involving wheelchair prescriptions
  
  
• Represented a money transmitting business in a federal unlicensed money transmitting business prosecution
  
  
• Represented the founder of a major, publicly-traded medical concern in connection with an SEC insider-trading investigation
  
  
• Represented a private equity manager in connection with an SEC fraud investigation
  
  
• Represented an individual before DOJ’s Office of Pardon Attorney and in connection with his application for a federal pardon
  
  
• Represented multiple individuals in connection with mortgage fraud investigations and prosecutions
  
  
• Represented a publicly-traded, personal care products company in connection with an SEC investigation into allegations of fraud and self-dealing
  
  
• Represented a physician in connection with a Texas Medical Board investigation

Teaching and speeches
From 1995 - 2002 and 2006 to the present, Mr. Mateja has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Texas Tech University School of Law, where he teaches white collar criminal law, criminal pretrial litigation, civil pretrial litigation, and trial advocacy.

Mr. Mateja is a prolific speaker (see his recent speeches by clicking here), having spoken nationally to a number of organizations and groups, such as the American Bar Association (National White Collar Crime, Securities Fraud, and Health Care Fraud Institutes), Washington Legal Foundation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Federalist Society, Texas Association of Defense Counsel, National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, Corporate Counsel Forum, and State Bar of Texas, on a broad range of topics, including corporate fraud, health care fraud, securities fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, accountant liability, sentencing of white collar defendants, Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate criminal liability, corporate compliance, parallel proceedings, deferred prosecution agreements, corporate prosecution guidelines, Justice Department sentencing policies, and the growing criminalization of civil practice.

Previously, Mr. Mateja was a frequent lecturer and instructor at the Justice Department's national training center in Columbia, South Carolina, speaking on topics such as Beginning and Advanced Conspiracy Law, Beginning and Advanced Corporate Criminal Liability, Corporate Fraud, Sarbanes-Oxley, the Federal Corporate Prosecution Guidelines, Proving Intent in White Collar Crime Cases, and Basic White Collar Crime.

Publications
"Supreme Court should void 'honest services,'" Dallas Morning News, December 18, 2009.

"Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," Texas Lawyer Roundtable Series on International Law, Vol. 24, No. 41 (January 26, 2009)

"Off the Record," with M. L. Levine and J. Masur, Los Angeles Daily Journal (December 4, 2008).

"Justice Department Report Shows Increased Enforcement of Export Controls," Fish & Richardson Export Control and White Collar Litigation Bulletin (November 25, 2008).

"New Federal Rule of Evidence 502 Limits Inadvertent Waiver Also Limits Subject Matter Waiver; Important to Regulatory Investigations," Fish & Richardson Litigation Alert (October 15, 2008).

"Scrutiny Increases Payment to Foreign Officials," Dallas Bar Association (May 1, 2008).

"What Civil Lawyers Need to Know About Criminal Law," Dallas Bar Association (May 1, 2007).

"Backdating Stock Options: In the Money And Under Investigation - What the Government Is Doing and What You Should Do in Response," with L. B. Willis, Esq., in "Securities Litigation & Regulation," Andrews Litigation Reporter, 12, 9, 1-6, (September 6, 2006).

"Attorney-Client Privilege Waivers in Criminal Investigations." This National Press Club panel presentation with Theodore Olson, George Terwillinger, and Mary Beth Buchanan was published in the Federalist Society's Engage (January 12, 2006).

"'Andersen': Another View -- No Barrier to DOJ," National Law Journal (June 13, 2005).

"'Booker' and 'FanFan': Congress Must Act," National Law Journal (January 31, 2005).

"Sentencing Reform, The Federal Criminal Justice System, and Judicial and Prosecutorial Discretion," Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y, 18, 319 (2004).

Bar service
Mr. Mateja serves on the ABA Criminal Justice Section's Upjohn Warnings Task Force, which has released its report entitled: "Upjohn Warnings: Recommended Best Practices When Corporate Counsel Interacts with Corporate Employees."

Mr. Mateja was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Dallas Bar Association for 2009.

Elected by statewide vote, Mr. Mateja served as President of the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA), the public service arm of the State Bar of Texas, from 1997-1998. TYLA received the 1998 President's Service Award from then President Clinton for its work with at-risk youth. TYLA was also recognized during his presidency as the No. 1 young lawyers association amongst all large states by the ABA Young Lawyers Division.

From 1996-1999, Mr. Mateja served on the State Bar of Texas' Board of Directors and its governing Executive Committee. He is a former trustee of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Mr. Mateja currently serves on the State Bar's Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct Committee which has been charged with revising the Disciplinary Rules in the wake of the ABA's Ethics 2000 model rule changes. He serves as an officer or member of numerous other bar committees including serving as Co-Chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s Bench-Bar Committee and Vice-Chair of its Trial Skills Committee.

Mr. Mateja is the North Texas/Oklahoma Regional Co-Chair for the ABA's White Collar Crime Committee and a Co-Chair of the White Collar Section of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.

Bar admissions
Admitted to the State Bar of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Western, and Southern Districts of Texas.