David Pitofsky is a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Litigation Department and member of its White Collar Crime & Government Investigations Practice and its Securities Litigation and SEC Enforcement Practice. He represents individuals and corporations in connection with white collar criminal investigations and prosecutions, regulatory investigations and lawsuits, internal corporate investigations and commercial lawsuits and arbitrations. Mr. Pitofsky’s subject matter expertise encompasses corporate accounting fraud, securities fraud, financial institution fraud, mail and wire fraud, health care fraud, antitrust, public corruption, tax fraud, money laundering and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley and Foreign Corrupt Practices Acts.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Mr. Pitofsky is a member of the Federal Bar Council and the chair of its Program Committee, as well as a member of its Inn of Court. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Bar Association of the City of New York and the Eastern District Association.
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
In January 2009, Mr. Pitofsky co-authored an article entitled “Limiting, Clawing Back Executive Pay in the Wake of Financial Bailout,” which was published in the New York Law Journal. Other recently-published works include a co-authored article in Andrews White Collar-Crime Reporter entitled “5th Circuit Confirms an Expansive Reading of the FCPA in United States v. Kay” (January 2008); an article in the New York Law Journal on the “Monitor/Examiner’s Role Under Deferred Prosecution Agreements” (September 2005); and a co-authored article in the New York Law Journal entitled “Lawyers on Trial” (July 2005). In November 2006, Mr. Pitofsky was one of three commentators who contributed to a Wall Street Journal Online feature entitled “Has the Government Gone Too Far in its War on Corporate Crime?”
Mr. Pitofsky is a frequent speaker on a variety of white collar crime and securities enforcement topics. In December 2005, he moderated a Federal Bar Council program on “Corporate Deferred Prosecution Agreements.” Other recent presentations include “Internal Investigations and Corporate Cooperation: Whose Side Are You On?,” a plenary session at the 2005 ABA National Institute on White Collar Crime (March 2005), and “Current Issues in Attorney-Client Privilege; Corporate Crime and Civil Litigation” at the Federal Bar Council CLE Program (March 2004). In September 2004, he presented the case of United States v. Computer Associates International, Inc. to the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force. In October 2005, he was a panelist at the American Conference Institute’s program on “Broker/Dealer Enforcement Actions.”
Mr. Pitofsky was the subject of a featured interview in the Corporate Crime Reporter (19 Corporate Crime Reporter 46(8), November 2005). He was featured in the January 2006 issue of CFO magazine (“Race to Reform: Test Case of DPAs”). He is also frequently quoted as an authority on a variety of white collar crime and securities fraud related topics in numerous publications, “Crackdown Puts Corporations, Executives in New Legal Peril,” Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005; “Inquiry Into Taser Upgraded, Giving SEC Subpoena Power,” New York Times, September 28, 2005; “Rove to Testify a Fourth Time in CIA Leak Case,” Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2005; “Calling the Ethics Cops,” Business Week, February 13, 2006; “Well-Knit Team Gathered by Cuomo in Effort to Solve ‘Real Problems,’” New York Sun, June 26, 2007; “In Brocade Trial, Judge Breyer is an Equal Opportunity Heavy,” Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2007; and “Clemens’s Fate Rests in Hands of Justice Dept.,” New York Sun, February 28, 2008.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Goodwin Procter, Mr. Pitofsky worked for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where he was Principal Deputy Chief of the Office’s Criminal Division. His distinguished tenure in the United States Attorney’s Office was highlighted by his work as lead investigator and prosecutor in United States v. Computer Associates International, Inc. Mr. Pitofsky spearheaded this highly complex, high profile, two-year corporate fraud investigation that resulted in securities fraud and obstruction of justice convictions of, among others, the company’s CFO and general counsel, as well as a deferred prosecution agreement with the company that included a $225 million payment of restitution. Based on his role in this case and other complex corporate fraud prosecutions which he supervised while in the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Pitofsky has a unique understanding and grasp of these complex cases, including the operation of the deferred prosecution agreements, restitution funds and monitorships that are normally established in connection with the resolution of such cases.
In his role as Principal Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Mr. Pitofsky was involved with shaping the policies, procedures and objectives of the Criminal Division as well as supervising approximately 100 criminal prosecutors. His particular areas of focus were corporate fraud, terrorism and capital crimes. Additionally, the United States Attorney, who was a member of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force, appointed Mr. Pitofsky to be her representative on two of the Task Force’s working groups which focused on creative corporate resolutions and emerging trends in corporate fraud. Mr. Pitofsky began his tenure in the Criminal Division in 1996 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Before his work within the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Pitofsky was an associate in the Litigation Department at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine, where he practiced commercial litigation primarily in the areas of securities fraud and antitrust.
Following law school, Mr. Pitofsky served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jaime Pieras, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS
Mr. Pitofsky is admitted to the New York State Bar, U.S. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals for the First and Second Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for Eastern and Southern Districts of New York and District of Puerto Rico.
RECOGNITION
Mr. Pitofsky has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, he was recognized as a Super Lawyer in the field of white collar criminal defense by Law & Politics.
While serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mr. Pitofsky was honored with the 2002 Director’s Award for Superior Performance.