Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul H. Schoeman Rejoins Kramer Levin

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP announced today that Paul H. Schoeman, most recently the Chief Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has rejoined the firm’s Litigation Department as a partner.

While in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Schoeman supervised the office’s Criminal and Civil Divisions and personally handled several high profile cases. He led the team of prosecutors who secured convictions at trial of all defendants in the “Squawk Box” case, which involved defendants from major Wall Street firms who profited from a scheme to front run confidential block order information. In addition, he led the team that reached a $300 million settlement in favor of the government in a qui tam action involving misbranded medical test kits. Mr. Schoeman also argued several appeals in the Second Circuit.

“It is great to have Paul back with us at Kramer Levin and our clients will immediately benefit from his high-level experience in both the public and private sectors,” said Paul S. Pearlman, managing partner of the firm. “He’s a seasoned trial attorney and he provides an added dimension to our capabilities to advise clients during these challenging times.”

Before returning to the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Schoeman was a partner at the firm, which he first joined in 2003. While at Kramer Levin, he practiced primarily in the areas of white collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation at the trial and appellate levels and participated in some of the most high profile cases of recent years. Mr. Schoeman won an acquittal on all counts for Clarence Norman, Jr., the former Deputy Speaker of the New York State Assembly. He was also a member of the trial team that successfully represented Michael Eisner, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, in a shareholder derivative lawsuit relating to the hiring and firing of Michael Ovitz. Additionally, Mr. Schoeman represented clients in a variety of major criminal matters, including cases involving insider trading, market manipulation and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He has conducted numerous corporate internal investigations and represented corporate and individual clients in investigations conducted by the SEC and the New York State Attorney General.

Mr. Schoeman joined Kramer Levin after serving, from 1998 to 2003, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York where he received a 2003 Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney. He was a member of the Organized Crime and Racketeering section and, in 2002, was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section, where he was responsible for training and supervising new prosecutors. He represented the United States as lead counsel in a wide variety of federal criminal prosecutions and successfully conducted numerous jury trials involving securities fraud, labor racketeering, tax evasion, identity theft and narcotics trafficking. He investigated and prosecuted some of the most significant organized crime cases in the office, including United States v. Aparo, et al., which charged 45 members and associates of the five New York-based organized crime families with racketeering, murder, and related crimes, and led to a second federal conviction of Genovese family boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante. Mr. Schoeman also prosecuted United States v. Cattagio, et al., a 55-defendant stock fraud case involving more than $190 million in losses to investors.

“I’m delighted to be back at Kramer Levin,” Mr. Schoeman said. “The firm has an unparalleled reputation in white-collar defense work and I look forward to rejoining the litigation team.”

Mr. Schoeman earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his A.B., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University. Mr. Schoeman began his career as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Edward R. Korman. He is an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School, where he teaches White Collar Crime and is a frequent speaker on topics of criminal law and white collar defense.