Q. Your background includes putting away the NYPD’s Mafia cops and racketeering organizations. You’ve also won convictions for illegal gun possession and sub-prime mortgage fraud. What made you go from prosecutor to defense attorney?
A. Prosecuting criminal cases as I did at the U.S. Attorney’s Office is a form of complex, high-stakes litigation. As an attorney at Day Pitney, I will have the opportunity to apply that experience as I return to high-level civil commercial litigation. I will also maintain my involvement in criminal work in the White Collar Criminal Defense and Internal Investigations Practice Group. The Day Pitney team I am joining brings a wealth of defense and prosecutorial experience, including a former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, eight former federal and state prosecutors, and a number of attorneys with previous senior experience at the SEC and other law enforcement agencies.
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Q. Why corporate defense work and not criminal defense work?
A. I was privileged to work at the U.S. Attorney’s office, one of the most important training grounds for trial lawyers today. Fewer and fewer lawyers have tried cases to verdicts, and yet the stakes in today’s complex criminal and civil litigation are so high that from the beginning clients need a lawyer with deep trial experience representing them. My goal in joining the U.S. Attorney’s office was both to contribute public service and to develop these skills to eventually put them into practice in the private sector in both civil and criminal matters.
In addition, I find corporate defense work to be more complex and sophisticated than most criminal defense work. As we’re seeing now, whenever there is a wide-scale disruption in the financial markets, the government begins to investigate to determine whether fraud was afoot. With those investigations come great challenges to clients and their counsel. The financial products involved in this credit crisis, for example, are both complex and varied, and it will be challenging for the government to identify where fraud might have taken place and who is to blame for it. My role as a criminal defense attorney in these investigations will be to help our clients navigate the government’s inquiries and prevent prosecutions.
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Q. You have a background in corporate law. Why not return to a corporate counsel position instead of going into private practice?
A. One of the things I love about litigation is oral and written advocacy and trial work. In my experience, corporate counsel rarely write briefs or appear in court. They hire outside counsel to fill those needs. My strengths are in oral and written advocacy, which I can utilize more fully in private practice.
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Q. Compensation being equal, which would be your preference – private practice or public service, and why?
A. That is a difficult question. For me, public service is very important and fulfilling. Ultimately, however, working for the government is somewhat like working as an in-house counsel, where one only has a single client. Private practice will give me the ability to have a more broad-based and diverse experience with varied legal challenges and types of matters. Ultimately, I strive to be a generalist who can help any client meet any legal challenge by drawing on the skills I have learned throughout my career and applying them to the particular situation that each client faces.
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BIO BOX:
Name: Daniel E. Wenner
Age: 36
Company: Day Pitney LLP
Position: Associate, Commercial Litigation
Birthplace: Denver, Colo.
