New York Law Journal

NYC Plaintiff's Boutique Picks Up Former Vermont Solicitor General

Michael Avenatti, the formerly high-flying celebrity attorney and one-time presidential hopeful, has been convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing $300,000 from his former client, adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stinging rebuke to the New York Court of Appeals in a case in which the state’s highest court had brushed aside a criminal defendant’s claim he would have been able to establish his innocence had he not been denied his constitutional right to confront a key witness. The Supreme Court’s decision comes on the heels of three new appointments to the Court of Appeals, which is now heavily weighted towards the prosecution, and also comes at a time when the court’s attention to the rights of criminal defendants has shrunk dramatically.

A wave of former New York prosecutorswith experience both at federal and state levelsare landing new jobs in private practice, as large law firms and boutiques alike are anticipating rising demand for white-collar defense work.

Lawyers for former Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David argued that he was dismissed without identifying or articulating anything that David had actually done wrong after the organization hired Sidley Austin to investigate whether David had engaged in wrongdoing in providing advice to Cuomo’s team while he was being publicly accused of sexual harassment.