Mr. Tirschwell practices primarily in the areas of white collar criminal defense and complex civil and constitutional litigation, drawing on over fifteen years of experience handling a wide range of cases as both a defense lawyer and federal prosecutor.

Mr. Tirschwell has defended individuals and corporations in investigations and at trial in matters initiated by the SEC, various U.S. Attorney's Offices, the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, the New York State Attorney General, the Manhattan D.A.'s Office, and FINRA (formerly the NASD and NYSE). His recent representations include: a major investment bank in a U.S. Attorney investigation and related multi-billion dollar civil litigation involving alleged fraud in connection with the collapse of two structured securities hedge funds; an investment management firm in a federal criminal antitrust bid-rigging investigation; senior officers of a major bank in U.S. Attorney and SEC investigations arising out of the credit crisis of 2007/2008; a former New York City commissioner in a public corruption, tax evasion, mortgage fraud and false statements criminal prosecution; a life settlement company in a NYAG investigation into alleged bid-rigging; the former CFO of a national business/consumer services company in a federal criminal and SEC investigation into alleged accounting fraud; a broker charged in a SEC market timing case; a Wall Street investment banker in the federal "stock finders" investigation; the former CFO of a New York-based cosmetics company in an insider trading investigation; the former treasurer of a major Puerto Rico-based bank in a SEC/DOJ probe of mortgage sales accounting; an internet search-engine company in a SEC investigation and securities fraud class actions; a former lead audit partner of a Big 4 accounting firm in a federal criminal and SEC investigation relating to earnings fraud; a prominent internet short-seller in an insider trading federal criminal trial; and a large hedge fund in the NYAG mutual fund investigation.

Mr. Tirschwell was recognized in 2008 by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America and has been chosen as a “Super Lawyer” in the area of white collar criminal defense in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 in New York Super Lawyers, a special supplement to The New York Times. He is co-author of the widely used textbook The Practice of Federal Criminal Law: Prosecution and Defense (2006, Thomson/West, American Casebook Series), which a review in the New York Law Journal called a "valuable and savvy text...distinguished by its practical approach and insight into the federal criminal system," as well as numerous other articles on federal criminal practice.

In addition, Mr. Tirschwell has conducted numerous internal corporate investigations and handles complex civil litigations during both pre-trial proceedings and at trial, including securities fraud class actions, complex business disputes, and, currently, a high-profile numismatic suit with the federal government to recover ten 1933 Double Eagle gold coins.

Mr. Tirschwell also is involved in representing leading companies in the litigation finance industry. He serves as outside counsel to the American Legal Finance Association and in that capacity negotiated a groundbreaking agreement with the New York State Attorney General's Office.

Mr. Tirschwell is one of only seventeen experienced federal criminal practitioners nationwide to be appointed in 2008 by the United States Sentencing Commission to the Commission's Practitioners Advisory Group, where he currently serves as the single voting member representing the Second Circuit.

Mr. Tirschwell has an active and diverse pro bono practice. In 2006, he led a team of Kramer Levin and other public interest attorneys in a high-profile federal constitutional challenge to an onerous Florida law that had shut down voter registration by non-partisan groups. For its "singular achievement" in this case, which was the first to hold that private voter registration drives are protected by the First Amendment, Kramer Levin received The National Law Journal's 2006 Pro Bono Award. Currently Mr. Tirschwell leads a team of Kramer Levin associates in representing several Uighurs, a persecuted Muslim minority group from western China, who have been wrongfully imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. In October 2008, the team won a historic ruling ordering immediate release into the United States of the firm's detainee clients. While the appeal of that ruling was pending, three of Kramer Levin's clients were released to freedom in Palau. The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear argument in the case involving the detention of Kramer Levin's remaining detainee client in the spring of 2010.

From 1997 through 2002, Mr. Tirschwell served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, representing the United States as lead counsel in scores of federal criminal cases -- including numerous jury trials -- involving securities fraud, mortgage fraud, and mail fraud, money laundering, embezzlement from federal programs and international narcotics trafficking. Mr. Tirschwell served as a deputy section chief, training and supervising new prosecutors, and was awarded the Department of Justice's Director's Award for Superior Performance in recognition of his successful prosecution of white collar crimes.

J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1992

• Board of Directors and Student Attorney, Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Amherst College, 1988

Honorable David V. Kenyon, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, 1992 - 1994

New York, 1993
District of Columbia, 1995

U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York

Teaching
Fordham Law School, Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing (2001-2003)
New York University Law School, Visiting Lecturer, Professional Responsibility in the Practice of Criminal Law (2004, 2005)

Publications
"DOJ Issues Criminal Discovery Guidance: What Will It Mean?," New York Law Journal, 2010 (co-author).
"Politics and Prosecution: A Historical Perspective on Shifting Federal Standards for Pursuing the Death Penalty in Non-Death Penalty States," 12 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 57 (2009) (co-author).
"Use of Acquitted Conduct in Federal Sentencing," New York Law Journal, 2009 (co-author).
"New Rule Proposed on Note Taking in Criminal Cases," New York Law Journal, 2007 (co-author).

United States Sentencing Commission, Practitioner's Advisory Group, voting member for the Second Circuit (2009-present)
Board of Directors, The Fund for Modern Courts (2009-present)
Pro Bono Panel, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2005-present)
Federal Bar Council's Inn of Court (2001-2003)
Council on Judicial Administration, City of New York Bar Association (1995-1997)
Pro Bono Panel, Southern District of New York (1996-1997)