Our Team
CSLG’s professionals are nationally-recognized in the field of corporate compliance, ethics and governance.
Scott Avelino | Principal
Scott has substantial experience working with many well-known companies in their efforts to achieve the highest levels of business integrity.
Prior to joining CSLG, he was a Principal with the Forensic practice of KPMG LLP, where he chaired the global network of forensic professionals responsible for driving innovation, thought leadership, global methodologies, training and regional deployment of ethics and compliance services across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Scott began his work in the field at the Ethics Resource Center, an influential non-profit organization that helped pioneer the field of business ethics and a predecessor to what is now the Ethics & Compliance Initiative. He presently serves as that organization’s Chief Ethics Officer (pro bono), a position he was appointed to by its Board of Directors.
The results of Scott’s thought leadership in the field have been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, CNN and dozens of other business, government and academic venues around the world. He is the lead author three national benchmarking studies examining the nature, prevalence and root causes of corporate fraud and misconduct in the U.S., along with the impact of ethics and compliance programs on employee perceptions and behaviors. He is also co-author, with Win Swenson, on “Measuring the Effectiveness of Compliance and Ethics Programs” in Compliance Programs and the Corporate Sentencing Guidelines (a leading legal interpretive treatise on preventing corporate criminal and civil liability under U.S. law).
Education:
Scott received his M.B.A. from the Cornell University Johnson School of Management and his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Bar Admissions:
Non-attorney member of the firm under DC Bar Rule 5.4(b).
Win Swenson | Partner
As Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Win headed the unit that developed the federal sentencing guidelines for organizations, which are widely viewed as establishing the baseline model for corporate compliance/ethics programs in the United States, and to some extent abroad.
Win was subsequently a member of the Advisory Group that made recommendations to the Sentencing Commission on ways to improve the organizational guidelines, leading to amendments adopted in 2004.
After his role at U.S. Sentencing Commission, Win led the compliance/ethics consulting practice of KPMG LLP in the U.S. Both at CSLG and in his prior consulting work, Win has assisted organizations on a very broad range of matters relating to compliance/ethics program management and evaluation.
In addition to his work with public companies, Win has been retained by the U.S. Department of Justice to evaluate the compliance program of a publicly traded company that the government was deciding whether to charge criminally.
Win has also served on the faculty at the Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center, where he has provided training to federal prosecutors on how to evaluate compliance programs.
Education:
Win obtained his J.D. from New York University School of Law where he was on the law review, a member of the Root-Tilden Scholarship Program, awarded the John Norton Pomeroy Award for Scholarship and elected to the Order of the Coif. He obtained his B.A. from Middlebury College where he was a College and Independent Scholar. He also spent a year at Harvard University as a Visiting Undergraduate.
Admissions:
District of Columbia (active)
New York (inactive)
Jay M. Cohen | Senior Advisor
Jay serves as Senior Advisor with CSLG and brings with him perspectives that span compliance executive leadership, law enforcement and professional services.
Prior to CSLG, Jay was a Managing Director in the Risk Advisory practice at Deloitte, where he helped companies in insurance and other industries develop and strengthen their compliance programs. Jay led teams of professionals to conduct compliance risk assessments: assist organizations in addressing changes in laws and regulations in critical areas including sales practices, information governance and data privacy; manage required remediation of compliance problems; and initiate major projects to strengthen compliance through better insights into risk, efficient deployment of resources, and the effective use of data and analytics.
Before joining Deloitte, Jay had more than 20 years’ experience as a compliance professional, most recently as the Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for Assurant, Inc., a global, specialty insurance company. Jay led Assurant’s comprehensive program to identify and address the legal and regulatory requirements for Assurant's varied, worldwide insurance businesses.
Prior to joining Assurant, Jay was a corporate compliance officer for companies such as Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, Mony Group, Oxford Health Plans and Prudential Insurance Company of America. He also provided compliance insights and recommendations as a consultant to companies in a wide range of industries.
Jay served in a number of positions in New York City and State Government, including Chief of the Appeals Bureau and First Deputy District Attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. There he led a team of over 50 appeals experts, successfully argued a case in the United States Supreme Court, and helped to prosecute high-profile homicide cases.
Education:
Jay earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.A. from The George Washington University.
Admissions:
New York (active)
Provides services with CSLG in a non-practicing attorney role
Richard H. Girgenti | Senior Advisor
Rich is a Senior Advisor with CSLG. He has over 40 years of legal and consulting experience in both the government and private sectors providing assistance to management and boards of companies interested in maintaining the highest levels of business integrity and is a recognized authority on ethics and compliance.
Rich is the CEO and Founder of IDPL Consulting, LLC, which provides executive coaching, consulting and training for directors and C-suite executives. His private practice, Girgenti Law, provides legal compliance, internal and regulatory investigative services. Rich is also a former Vice-Chairman of K2 Integrity, a leading investigative, risk and compliance consulting firm.
Previously, Rich held leadership positions at KPMG LLP, where he served as a member of the board of directors, the U.S. and Americas leader of KPMG’s Forensic Advisory Services, and a member of KPMG’s Global Forensic Advisory Board. More recently, Rich served as a special advisor to the Office of the Chairman.
At KPMG, Rich worked for major national and international clients conducting internal and regulatory investigations, providing crisis management services, helping assess, design and implement internal controls and compliance programs, including in the area of anti-bribery and corruption. He also has extensive experience serving as an Independent Integrity Monitor in a variety of industries for companies that have entered into plea and settlement agreements with the government regulators and enforcement agencies.
Rich is a frequent author and lecturer who has co-authored two books: The New Era of Regulatory Enforcement: A Comprehensive Guide for Raising the Bar to Manage Risk (McGraw-Hill, April 2016) and Managing the Risk of Fraud and Misconduct: Meeting the Challenges of a Global, Regulated and Digital Environment (McGraw-Hill, March 2011).
Education:
Rich obtained his J.D. from Georgetown Law where he was the Articles Editor for the American Criminal Law Review and his B.A. from Seton Hall University where he was a scholarship debater on the University’s National Brownson Debate Team.
Admissions:
New York (inactive)
Southern District of New York
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit