Paola is a former federal prosecutor who focuses her practice on advising domestic and international corporations on complex white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement cases, government investigations, internal investigations, and related litigation. Paola specializes in antitrust, fraud, and market manipulation investigations.
Prior to joining Reed Smith, Paola was a trial attorney in the New York Office of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division for four years. Paola joined the DOJ through the Attorney General's Honors Program in 2017. During her time at the DOJ, she investigated and prosecuted both domestic and international companies for Title 15 and Title 18 crimes including price-fixing, bid-rigging, market allocation, wire fraud, mail fraud, and honest services fraud. Paola is experienced in investigating conduct that occurred overseas and the jurisdictional issues these cases present, including the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA). Paola also brings experience in government investigations involving coordination with foreign law enforcement, evidence obtained abroad, mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs), search warrants, and subpoenas issued to companies operating in multiple jurisdictions.
Paola’s work at the DOJ included providing technical assistance to competition agencies in Latin America that oversee matters involving international corruption and antitrust cartel offenses. At the DOJ she worked on the investigation and prosecution of several global banks and their traders for alleged price-fixing of the EUR/USD currency pair in the Foreign Exchange (FX) market. From 2020-2021, Paola was detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida (SDFL) where she worked on an international gun trafficking and identity theft case that resulted in several guilty pleas.
Paola received her B.A. from the University of Maryland (UMD) College Park. Upon graduation she was awarded the La Raza Unida Award, given to the graduating senior at UMD who “contributed most significantly to the advancement of the Latinx community and general interest of the university.” Paola obtained her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. and her LL.M. from Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain. During law school, Paola participated in the Program on International Organizations, Law, and Diplomacy (PIOLD), spending two months taking several courses on international trade at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
As a law student, Paola was on the board of the Latinx Law Students’ Association and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Honor Society. She also served as a senior staff member for the American University Business Law Review (AUBLR). Her comment on the Yates Memo and deferred prosecution agreements was published by AUBLR in 2016. During law school Paola interned at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the DOJ Antitrust Washington-Criminal II Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, and for the Honorable William T. Newman, retired judge of the Seventeenth District of Virginia.
Paola is admitted to practice law in New York.
