May 8, 2025 | 11 AM – 12:30 PM ET
Join the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) for an urgent Know Your Rights webinar focused on the intersection of criminal law, research security, and higher education—specifically addressing the mounting concerns facing Asian American professors and scientists who are facing increasing scrutiny and investigations, raising concerns about the return of the China Initiative and the environment of fear it cultivated. Moreover, international students, postgrads, and researchers are also facing increasing scrutiny with efforts to halt all Chinese student visas, preventing graduate students from conducting research, and targeting their participation in STEM fields. This session will empower scholars, faculty, students, and researchers with vital legal knowledge, and we encourage you to register today.
Speaker Robert Fisher, an attorney and law partner, will break down your rights, what’s at stake, and how to navigate this evolving landscape. He will share his unique expertise that tackles how higher education, research, and normal academic activities have increasingly become criminalized and the ways in which the research community may be impacted as a result. This is a must-attend event for anyone impacted by or concerned about the growing scrutiny of scholars, scientists, and researchers in the United States.
GUEST SPEAKER
Rob Fisher | Partner/Practice Group Leader, Government Investigations & White Collar Defense | Nixon Peabody LLP
Rob Fisher, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP in its Boston office, is a Chambers USA ranked trial lawyer and former Assistant United States Attorney who represents clients facing bet-the-company litigation and internal and government investigations or charges brought by agencies such as the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the various state attorneys general. He serves as practice group leader for the firm’s Government Investigations & White Collar Defense practice, which is a Chambers Band One practice and was recently honored as a New England Litigation Department of the Year for the second year in a row.
As a former Assistant United States Attorney for almost a decade, Rob handled some of the federal district’s most complex and high-profile white-collar fraud cases. He has received numerous awards for his work as a defense attorney and a federal prosecutor, including the US Department of Justice Director’s Award, and was named a Massachusetts Lawyer of the Year (2022).
Rob has successfully defended corporate and individual clients facing almost all variations of federal white-collar offenses. Recently, Rob has defended many of the nation’s most prestigious scientists and academics in various China Initiative and False Claims Act investigations and prosecutions. Based upon his work as a defense attorney and prosecutor, Rob has been interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes, has been featured in two Netflix documentaries, a CNN documentary, and a History Channel documentary, and is frequently quoted in numerous national publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the Boston Globe. His cases have been featured in Wall Street Journal reporter Melissa Korn’s book Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & The Making of The College Admissions Scandal (2020), John Vandemoer’s book Rigged Justice (2021), and WBUR’s Last Seen podcast (2018).
In fall 2022, Rob was recognized by Boston University School of Law, in honor of its 150th anniversary, as one of the 150 people, places, and events that have made an impact on the law school and the world. Rob has previously been retained as an expert witness in matters regarding the management and defense of government and regulatory investigations and was also nominated by former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve as a member of the Commonwealth’s Task Force on the Preservation of Evidence.
Rob holds a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and a B.S. from Northeastern University.