Jennifer Achilles ’96 P’28

Overview

Partner, Blank Rome LLP
New York, NY

• BA, Chemistry, Vassar College 
• MS, Organic Chemistry, Yale University
• JD, Tulane Law School

Jennifer Achilles (she/her) is a partner at Blank Rome LLP, a large law firm with offices throughout the United States. She is based in New York City and focuses her practice on white collar criminal defense, securities litigation, and internal investigations. Jennifer defends public and private companies, as well as their officers and directors, in government investigations by the Department of Justice, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the New York Attorney General’s office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She represents clients in matters involving insider trading, market manipulation, accounting fraud, cryptocurrency-related activities, anti-money laundering, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Jennifer leads Blank Rome’s internal working group on cryptocurrency and digital asset enforcement. Prior to joining Blank Rome, she worked at three other law firms in New York City and clerked for a federal district judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Before law school, Jennifer worked as a chemist for Pfizer in New London, Connecticut.

Advice to Students: 

If you know what you want to do after graduation, that’s great. If you have no idea, that’s also great! It’s perfectly fine not to have everything figured out. And it’s also okay to change your mind along the way. As a Vassar student, you are getting a broad-based liberal arts education. That means you are learning how to think critically, you are honing your writing skills, and you are navigating complex academic material. You are being prepared for the career you think you want, the career you actually want, and the career that doesn’t even exist yet. Take a deep breath—you are going to be okay.