Attorneys

Barbara R. Llanes

Barbara advises companies and individuals on a wide range of criminal, regulatory and civil matters, including matters involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, state and local prosecutors’ offices, and other domestic and international enforcement and regulatory agencies.

A seasoned former federal prosecutor who is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese, Barbara represented the U.S. Department of Justice for more than eleven years, domestically and in Latin America, in international investigations and complex criminal matters. Barbara has unique insight into the workings of multi-national and multi-agency investigations and prosecutions. Chambers and Partners ranked Barbara as one of South Florida’s top attorneys for White Collar Crime and Government Investigations, describing her as “intelligent, creative, compassionate and responsive” and noting that her “vision and service to clients are excellent.”

Before joining the firm, Barbara headed the Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training (OPDAT) in Mexico. During her three years in Mexico, Barbara worked closely with authorities in the United States, Mexico and other countries in Latin America on cross-border matters involving money laundering, asset forfeiture, public corruption, fraud, human trafficking and cyber crimes. Barbara also trained hundreds of foreign law enforcement professionals and judges, often in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement agencies, on financial investigations, asset forfeiture and trial strategy. In 2019, Barbara was invited to advise Mexico’s federal legislature in its efforts to overhaul the country’s asset forfeiture laws.

Prior to her time in Mexico, Barbara served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey, where she spent several years in the Office’s Public Corruption Unit and served as Chief of the Organized Crime and Gangs Unit and Chief of the General Crimes Unit. Barbara tried several high-profile cases to verdict, and investigated, prosecuted and supervised hundreds of matters involving mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, bribery, embezzlement, illegal kickbacks, extortion, murder for hire, RICO, tax fraud and tax evasion schemes, aggravated identity theft, narcotrafficking, computer hacking and civil rights violations.

Barbara also has extensive experience handling high-impact civil litigation. She has successfully defended clients in multi-million dollar securities and environmental litigation and in commercial disputes involving cutting-edge legal and factual issues. Before joining government service, Barbara was a litigator at Paul Weiss in New York, where she played a lead role in a number of high-stakes commercial, criminal and regulatory matters.

As part of her pro bono work, Barbara has represented indigent defendants in state and federal courts, clients seeking asylum in the United States, children in need of appropriate educational accommodations and parents defending their ability to maintain their parental rights. Barbara is a member of various professional organizations, including the Federal Bar Association, the Women’s White Collar Defense Network, the American Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association. As a member of the Bench and Bar Conference Committee, Barbara helped organize and put on the 2023 Bench and Bar Conference in Miami Beach, Florida.

Barbara has delivered presentations at numerous national and international conferences on topics such as “Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture,” “U.S. and Latin America Tax Practice Trends,” “Money Laundering and New Technologies,” “Anticorruption and Investigations in Mexico,” “The Role of Lawyers in Advancing Sustainable Development” and “Corporate Criminal Liability and Compliance.” She also has provided legal analysis and commentary on domestic and international outlets such as CNN Español, Telemundo, WPLG Local 10 News, El Financiero TV Bloomberg, Radio Caracol, Reuters and the Miami Herald.

Barbara previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Paul C. Huck, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida. She earned her law degree from Stanford University School of Law, where she was the Development Editor for Stanford’s Journal of International Law and a staff editor for Stanford’s Journal of Law & Public Policy. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish from Emory University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was Captain and MVP of the Cross-Country team and the NCAA Institutional Woman of the Year. Barbara emigrated from Cuba and settled in Miami as a child. She has lived and worked overseas in Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico. She now lives in Miami with her husband and two children.