With over twenty-five years of experience in the public and private sectors, Christine Adams is a skilled litigator who specializes in internal investigations, civil litigation, SEC investigations, and white-collar criminal matters. Christine has represented multiple Fortune 500 clients, including companies in the global media and entertainment, gaming, and banking industries. She has also represented major universities in C-suite and Title IX investigations.
Christine has successfully led dozens of investigations, including for claims of sex- and race-based harassment and discrimination, assault, retaliation, conflicts of interest, breaches of fiduciary duty, anti-competitive conduct, bullying, embezzlement, and fraud.
Before founding The Adams Law Group, Christine served as a federal prosecutor for eleven years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where she served as the Defense Contractor Fraud Coordinator for the Central District of California. In that role, she coordinated and directed investigations by federal law enforcement agencies throughout the Central District. She also led multiple complex investigations relating to Department of Defense contracts, aircraft testing, trade secrets, corruption, and other areas. Christine successfully prosecuted a major defense contractor for trade secrets violations in connection with launch services contracts worth billions of dollars, resulting in the largest criminal and civil penalties on record ever imposed on a defense contractor at the time for both the Department of Defense and NASA. Christine served in the Government Fraud and Public Corruption and, subsequently, the Major Frauds sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she also specialized in complex fraud matters, including SEC investigations, tax, bank and mortgage fraud, and environmental crimes.
Christine also served as an instructor in fraud training programs for federal prosecutors and for several law enforcement agencies. She has received commendations from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Army Criminal Investigation Command, the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section, the NASA Office of Inspector General, and the Internal Revenue Service.
After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Christine served as Associate General Counsel for The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. In that role, she advised and represented institutions, including The Broad Center, which trains leaders in public school education, and The Broad, a contemporary art museum, regarding various matters, including negotiations with public entities, litigation involving the museum, and sensitive investigations.
Before she became a federal prosecutor, Christine was a litigator at O’Melveny & Myers, where she specialized in defending against claims of securities fraud, antitrust violations, and white-collar crimes. She also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable John G. Davies of the United States District Court of the Central District of California.
Christine currently serves on the Pro Bono Civil Rights Panel for the Central District of California. Christine is a past chair and president of the Yale Law School Executive Committee and past chair of the board of The Industry, a non-profit dedicated to creating and producing diverse and inclusive, site-specific art and music in Los Angeles.
Education
• J.D., Yale Law School
Yale Law Journal, Symposium Editor
• B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Experience
• The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad, Associate General Counsel
• Unites States Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Assistant United States Attorney
• O'Melveny & Myers, Litigation Associate
• United States District Court, Honorable John G. Davies, Judicial Law Clerk