Jocelyn D. Francoeur is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm's Chicago office. She focuses her practice on white collar criminal and securities defense, as well as complex commercial matters.
Jocelyn has experience in a wide variety of civil matters in state and federal trial courts, courts of appeal and arbitrations, including contract disputes, business torts, products liability claims, trust disputes and securities fraud. In recent years, Jocelyn has successfully defended a pharmaceutical client in an arbitration regarding a complex patent licensing dispute, obtained dismissal of malpractice claims against a national accounting firm and counseled the Special Committee of an international medical products and services company during an internal investigation. In 2009, she was part of a team that successfully obtained reversal in the U.S. Supreme Court of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decision denying non-parties the right to enforce an arbitration agreement under the Federal Arbitration Act (Arthur Andersen LLP v. Carlisle, 129 S. Ct. 1896 (2009)).
Jocelyn also has substantial experience in criminal matters. Jocelyn has defended clients against charges ranging from securities and health care fraud to environmental and immigration offenses, and she has counseled individuals and corporations facing investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. She has first- and second-chaired evidentiary hearings and trials in federal court. In 2007, Jocelyn successfully argued an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that resulted in a reversal of the client's criminal convictions on health care and mail fraud charges (United States v. Vasquez-Ruiz, 502 F.3d 700 (7th Cir. 2007)), and, in 2009, she obtained post-trial judgment of acquittal for a client convicted of making false statements on immigration forms (United States v. Khellil, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121038 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 28, 2009)).
In 2008 and 2009, Jocelyn was recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a "Future Star" in Illinois, and, in 2009, she was selected to join the Federal Defender Panel in the Northern District of Illinois. Jocelyn is an active member of the Firm's recruiting and pro bono committees.
Before joining McDermott, Jocelyn served as a law clerk for the Honorable Margaret M. Morrow, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and worked as an associate in the commercial litigation department of a large law firm in Milwaukee. Before attending law school, Jocelyn taught high school civics and history in Louisiana as a member of Teach for America. Jocelyn remains active in Teach For America's efforts and is a member of Teach for America-Chicago's Auxiliary Board.
Jocelyn is a member of the Illinois and Wisconsin bars. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits as well as the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar), the Eastern District of Michigan and the Eastern District of Wisconsin. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association.
Education
- New York University School of Law, J.D. (magna cum laude), 2002
- University of Wisconsin - Madison, M.A., 1997
- Northwestern University, B.A., 1993
