The NYU Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) is honored to announce that Emma Mittelstaedt and Bruce Yannett, two attorneys with long and distinguished careers, have joined our Senior Fellows program.
Our Senior Fellows, made up of retired or semi-retired leading practitioners and former government officials, serve as resident experts on a wide array of topics that promote effective enforcement policy and enhance compliance across a variety of sectors. The presence and voice of our Fellows contributes greatly to our mission to bring together domestic and international experts, government officials and leading academics to develop a richer understanding of the causes of corporate misconduct and the nature of effective compliance. As part of PCCE’s dedication to research and dialogue concerning best practices in the field and in policy, Senior Fellows are invited to moderate panels, publish original pieces on this blog, provide mentorship to PCCE’s rising Students Fellows, and attend our conferences and receptions. It is expected that Senior Fellows will maintain a commitment to PCCE’s forum for debate and lively analysis of critical issues, while respecting the non-partisan nature of the organization. Bios of our new Senior Fellows appear below.
Emma Mittelstaedt is an antitrust lawyer and former prosecutor who has held senior executive positions at both the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission. In over a decade at the Justice Department, Mittelstaedt led complex price-fixing investigations and litigation, serving as a trial attorney (2014-17), Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General (2017-18), Assistant Chief and Acting Chief of the Washington Criminal enforcement section (2018-22), and Director of Criminal Enforcement (2022-25). As Director, she supervised all criminal antitrust prosecutions nationwide, initiated and implement significant policy developments (including authoring the most recent updates to the Division’s compliance guidance and its first whistleblower rewards policy), and coordinated with domestic and international law enforcement agencies. In her earlier roles, she managed, led, litigated, and investigated dozens of high-profile criminal antitrust enforcement matters, including the largest domestic cartel corporate prosecutions in the Division’s history, complex parallel proceedings, and obstruction of justice matters. Most recently, Mittelstaedt served as Associate Director in the FTC’s Bureau of Competition from 2025 to September 2026. In that role, she spearheaded antitrust enforcement and policy initiatives in the healthcare and agriculture industries, and co-chaired an interagency healthcare task force.
Mittelstaedt began her professional career as an associate at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles and at Baker Botts in Washington, DC, and clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She is a barrister in the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court. Mittelstedt holds a BA from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was Executive Editor of the Chicago Journal of International Law, a member of the inaugural class of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, and a co-founder of the Criminal Law Society.
Bruce Yannett served as the Chair of the White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP for over ten years until November 2023 and also served as Deputy Presiding Partner of the firm from July 2011 until June 2022. Currently, Yannett is Of Counsel at Debevoise. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement and internal investigations. He represents a broad range of companies, financial institutions and their executives in matters involving securities fraud, accounting fraud, foreign bribery, cybersecurity, insider trading and money laundering. He has extensive experience representing corporations and individuals outside the United States in responding to inquiries and investigations. Yannett joined Debevoise in 1986. In 1987 and 1988, he served on the team of lawyers selected by Lawrence Walsh to investigate the Iran/Contra matter, acting as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel. From 1988 to 1992, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Yannett received Global Investigations Review’s Outstanding Career award in recognition of his many achievements over the years. Chambers Global (2024) and Chambers USA (2024) recognize Yannett as a Band 1 practitioner for FCPA matters. He is also noted by Chambers USA (2024) as a Band 1 practitioner for white collar criminal defense. Yannett received his B.A. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1980, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his J.D. cum laude from New York University Law School in 1985, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was the executive editor of the New York University Law Review. From 1985 to 1986, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Edward Weinfeld of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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PCCE is a law and policy center at NYU School of Law. For more information on PCCE, you can visit our website and sign up for our events mailing list here.
The NYU Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) is honored to announce that Emma Mittelstaedt and Bruce Yannett, two attorneys with long and distinguished careers, have joined our Senior Fellows program.
Our Senior Fellows, made up of retired or semi-retired leading practitioners and former government officials, serve as resident experts on a wide array of topics that promote effective enforcement policy and enhance compliance across a variety of sectors. The presence and voice of our Fellows contributes greatly to our mission to bring together domestic and international experts, government officials and leading academics to develop a richer understanding of the causes of corporate misconduct and the nature of effective compliance. As part of PCCE’s dedication to research and dialogue concerning best practices in the field and in policy, Senior Fellows are invited to moderate panels, publish original pieces on this blog, provide mentorship to PCCE’s rising Students Fellows, and attend our conferences and receptions. It is expected that Senior Fellows will maintain a commitment to PCCE’s forum for debate and lively analysis of critical issues, while respecting the non-partisan nature of the organization. Bios of our new Senior Fellows appear below.
Emma Mittelstaedt is an antitrust lawyer and former prosecutor who has held senior executive positions at both the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission. In over a decade at the Justice Department, Mittelstaedt led complex price-fixing investigations and litigation, serving as a trial attorney (2014-17), Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General (2017-18), Assistant Chief and Acting Chief of the Washington Criminal enforcement section (2018-22), and Director of Criminal Enforcement (2022-25). As Director, she supervised all criminal antitrust prosecutions nationwide, initiated and implement significant policy developments (including authoring the most recent updates to the Division’s compliance guidance and its first whistleblower rewards policy), and coordinated with domestic and international law enforcement agencies. In her earlier roles, she managed, led, litigated, and investigated dozens of high-profile criminal antitrust enforcement matters, including the largest domestic cartel corporate prosecutions in the Division’s history, complex parallel proceedings, and obstruction of justice matters. Most recently, Mittelstaedt served as Associate Director in the FTC’s Bureau of Competition from 2025 to September 2026. In that role, she spearheaded antitrust enforcement and policy initiatives in the healthcare and agriculture industries, and co-chaired an interagency healthcare task force.
Mittelstaedt began her professional career as an associate at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles and at Baker Botts in Washington, DC, and clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She is a barrister in the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court. Mittelstedt holds a BA from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was Executive Editor of the Chicago Journal of International Law, a member of the inaugural class of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, and a co-founder of the Criminal Law Society.
Bruce Yannett served as the Chair of the White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP for over ten years until November 2023 and also served as Deputy Presiding Partner of the firm from July 2011 until June 2022. Currently, Yannett is Of Counsel at Debevoise. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement and internal investigations. He represents a broad range of companies, financial institutions and their executives in matters involving securities fraud, accounting fraud, foreign bribery, cybersecurity, insider trading and money laundering. He has extensive experience representing corporations and individuals outside the United States in responding to inquiries and investigations. Yannett joined Debevoise in 1986. In 1987 and 1988, he served on the team of lawyers selected by Lawrence Walsh to investigate the Iran/Contra matter, acting as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel. From 1988 to 1992, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Yannett received Global Investigations Review’s Outstanding Career award in recognition of his many achievements over the years. Chambers Global (2024) and Chambers USA (2024) recognize Yannett as a Band 1 practitioner for FCPA matters. He is also noted by Chambers USA (2024) as a Band 1 practitioner for white collar criminal defense. Yannett received his B.A. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1980, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his J.D. cum laude from New York University Law School in 1985, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was the executive editor of the New York University Law Review. From 1985 to 1986, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Edward Weinfeld of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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PCCE is a law and policy center at NYU School of Law. For more information on PCCE, you can visit our website and sign up for our events mailing list here.
