I am a former federal prosecutor based in Chicago who focuses on health care fraud, data analytics in litigation, and white-collar criminal defense.

Welcome to the Law Office of Stephen Chahn Lee, LLC.

How I can help you

With my background as a federal prosecutor, lawyer, and newspaper reporter, I bring more than two decades of experience investigating and litigating a wide variety of cases. I dig deep into the facts so that I can help people and companies facing crises, whether directly or with other lawyers.

  • I won convictions in all of my 17 trials as a federal prosecutor, including six trials where I cross-examined the defendant.

  • In private practice, I have helped defend people and companies facing government investigations and criminal charges. In one seven-week trial involving the Medicare Strike Force, I helped clear three people of all charges against them.

  • I use years of experience with data analytics to conduct my investigations and cases more efficiently and effectively.

I’d love to connect and see if I can help you or your existing counsel with your situation.

Investigations

I was a newspaper reporter before becoming a lawyer, and that experience has served me well as a prosecutor and in private practice. I have helped conduct many investigations and have helped clear up the consequences of many poor investigations. I’ve spoken about how to conduct better investigations in sessions for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bar Association.

Health Care Fraud

I was the senior counsel to the health care fraud unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). I am one of the few prosecutors to have worked closely with Medicare on programs to deter fraud, waste, and abuse, and I bring my knowledge of Medicare regulations and data to representing people and companies facing investigations for health care fraud.

I’ve also helped train defense attorneys on how to defend people facing heath care fraud and kickback cases. In particular, I think many prosecutors, law-enforcement agents, and defense attorneys overlook a key element in health care fraud cases - “willfulness.”

Data Analytics

In this era of big data, there is a data component to many civil and criminal cases, but many lawyers do not know how to think about data or use it effectively. For about 20 years, I have used data analysis extensively in a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. I’ve also given multiple trainings inside and outside the government on how to use data more effectively, including discussing statistical sampling on a Federal Bar Association panel. My article for the U.S. Attorney Bulletin, “How To Build A Smoking Gun,” is available here.

Appearances and Speeches: See me “in action”

I don’t have videos of my trials or court appearances, but you can get a sense of me through some of the webinars and talks that I’ve done in recent years.

This was a webinar that I did for the Federal Bar Association about how the Sherlock Holmes stories provide great practical advice for real-life investigations. I’ve also led sessions for organizations about how to conduct better interviews, including one for the Asian American Bar Association of New York and one for the FBA using the Hercule Poirot stories as case studies.

I appeared on CNBC’s American Greed to discuss one of the health care fraud cases I prosecuted, this one involving a hospice in Illinois. I’ve also appeared on NBC News and True Crime Daily and have been quoted in the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.