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About USC Gould
USC Gould is a top-ranked law school with a 120-year history and reputation for academic excellence. We are located on the beautiful 228-acre USC University Park Campus, just south of downtown Los Angeles.
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Academics
Learn about our interdisciplinary curriculum, experiential learning opportunities and specialized areas.
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Admissions
USC Gould helps prepare you for a stellar legal career. You can pursue a JD degree, one of our numerous graduate and international offerings, or an online degree or certificate.
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Students
Participate in an unparalleled learning experience with diversity of people and thought. Get involved in the law school community and participate in activities that enhance your studies.
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Careers
We work closely with students, graduates and employers to support successful career goals and outcomes. Our overall placement rate is consistently strong, with 94 percent of our JD class employed within 10 months after graduation.
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Faculty
Our faculty is distinguished for its scholarship, as well as for its commitment to teaching. Our 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio creates an intimate and collegial learning environment.
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Carol Alexis Chen
USC Gould School of Law
- FACULTY DIRECTORY
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- + CENTERS AND INITIATIVES
- CENTER FOR LAW AND PHILOSOPHY (CLP)
- CENTER FOR LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCE (CLASS)
- CENTER FOR LAW, HISTORY AND CULTURE (CLHC)
- CENTER FOR TRANSNATIONAL LAW AND BUSINESS (CTLB)
- INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM INSTITUTE (IRI)
- PACIFIC CENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY AND ETHICS
- SAKS INSTITUTE FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW, POLICY, AND ETHICS
- + WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES

Lecturer in Law
699 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90089-0074 USA
Last Updated: January 6, 2022
Carol Alexis Chen, an award-winning former career federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, is a partner and trial lawyer in Winston & Strawn LLP’s Los Angeles office. She represents public and private companies including start-ups and those that are on the Fortune 100 lists, corporate officers, entrepreneurs and other individuals in high-stakes white collar criminal and complex civil litigation. In addition, Chen responds to government inquiries and conducts sensitive internal investigations for her clients and counsels them on the development, implementation and enhancement of compliance and remediation programs. Chen has particular expertise with respect to anti-money laundering, trade and export control, and health care laws and regulations, the False Claims Act and related qui tam provisions, and matters involving business torts, fraud and RICO as well as fintech, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. With more than 20 years of legal experience, Chen’s practice covers all aspects of investigations, regulatory and compliance work, litigation and trials, and cuts across different sectors including financial and banking; technology, new media, and telecommunications; health care and life sciences; and complex commercial litigation.
Prior to joining Winston & Strawn in 2021, Chen served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles for over 15 years in various supervisory roles including as an acting deputy chief and acting chief of rookie prosecutors, and most recently as the first female chief in office history of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. She also created and chaired various high-profile initiatives, task forces, and working groups and led community and law enforcement outreach efforts on behalf of the Department.
As the rare former federal prosecutor who served in both the criminal and civil divisions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, Chen directed federal and local law enforcement in hundreds of complex federal criminal grand jury and wiretap investigations, evaluated thousands of investigations for federal prosecution, and trained law enforcement officials and prosecutors including on building complex cases and courtroom and trial advocacy and defended the United States and its employees in significant torts, civil rights, employment discrimination and immigration cases; as such, Chen has extensive criminal and civil casework and first-chair trial experience. Chen handled some of the most significant investigations and cases of the department, and has been recognized for her trial prowess. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section’s 2019 Prosecutor of the Year Award and commendations from various federal and local law enforcement and community organizations.
Prior to joining the DOJ, Chen was a litigation associate in the Los Angeles office of a global law firm, specializing in complex commercial, employment and securities litigation and counseling. She earned a BA in political science, summa cum laude, from UCLA, and her JD from Yale Law School. Upon graduation, she clerked for the (late) Hon. Pamela Ann Rymer on the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena, and for the (ret.) Hon. Lourdes G. Baird, then a District Judge for the Central District of California.
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
Bloomberg Government
June 22, 2022
Re: Franita Tolson
Franita Tolson was interviewed about how federal lawsuits from North Carolina, Alabama, and Arkansas test the limits of the Voting Rights Act, the boundaries of state government authority, and the ability of voting rights groups to file racial gerrymandering cases. “These doctrines and approaches in these cases fundamentally reset the rules of the game,” she said. “In 2030 we will live in a completely different world than we lived in in 2020, and 2020 was not favorable to minority voters at all.”
RECENT SCHOLARSHIP
Robin Craig
March, 2022
"Saltwater Sovereignty: Tribal Marine Management Authority Along the Pacific Coast.” Online Environmental Law Workshop. University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD.
Daniel Klerman
March, 2022
“Comment on Choi, Erickson, & Pritchard, ‘Coalitions among Plaintiffs’ Attorneys in Securities Class Actions’,” Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Virtual, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Robin Craig
March, 2022
“Who’s on First? The Mind-Blowing Attempt to Conceptualize Deference in the Midst of Decision Delays and Agency Repeals,” J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium for the George Washington University School of Law, Virtual, Washington, D.C.