Tina Sciocchetti

Tina Sciocchetti is a partner in our Government Investigations & White-Collar Defense practice group, drawing on her extensive experience as a former federal prosecutor. She is co-chair of Nixon Peabody’s Private and Independent Schools specialty team and serves on the Higher Education and Data Privacy teams.

My focus

I represent clients in state and federal investigations, providing counsel across a broad spectrum including healthcare, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) compliance, false claims/qui tam defense, ethics/lobbying, and professional licensure actions. Additionally, I have a particular focus on representing colleges, universities, and secondary schools in matters relating to student affairs, including Title IX defense, and New York State Education Law 129-B.

Before joining Nixon Peabody, I spent 17 years as an assistant US attorney in Washington, DC, and Albany, prosecuting civil and criminal matters. I thereafter served as an executive director at the New York State Education Department in the Office of Higher Education, where I worked closely with department leaders and the Board of Regents. In that role, I oversaw educator licensure matters and investigations of schools and district personnel, and served as the department’s chief privacy officer, managing student data privacy issues.

Government Investigations/Qui Tam Defense

I focus on complex civil and criminal matters involving government investigations, white-collar criminal defense, qui tam litigation, and regulatory compliance. This includes conducting all manner of internal investigations, and responding to subpoenas, inquiries, and search warrants from investigative bodies, providing grand jury counseling, coordinating and negotiating criminal settlements such as deferred and non-prosecution agreements, resisting or defending debarment proceedings for government contractors and conducting “soup to nuts” trials and administrative proceedings.

Education

I also focus on counseling educational institutions, particularly in the areas of sexual- and gender-based harassment, student conduct and disciplinary proceedings, school safety, and disability rights compliance.

My experience also includes on-campus work as a director of student wellbeing, investigation and response to current and historical sexual misconduct, auditing student conduct and safety programs, developing effective institutional policies and practices and advising trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, and students on a variety of issues. I also help schools respond to investigations by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, the Clery Compliance Division, and the New York State Office of Campus Safety.

Data Privacy

I provide comprehensive counseling regarding educational data privacy, compliance with records retention and privacy laws, and responding to data security breaches at educational institutions and businesses.

Looking ahead

Increased regulatory enforcement is emerging in all sectors, and public and private entities must be prepared with experienced, effective counsel when the government comes calling.