Ira M. Feinberg
Partner, New York
Ira Feinberg has a broad litigation practice which focuses on two areas: (1) appellate matters, in both civil and criminal cases, and (2) the defense of white collar criminal prosecutions, grand jury investigations, investigations and enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other law enforcement agencies. Ira also has extensive experience handling more traditional civil and commercial litigation.
Ira is one of the leading appellate lawyers in New York. In recent years, he has represented an executive of a major insurance company in an appeal to the Second Circuit of a criminal conviction for securities fraud; the Cayman Islands affiliate of a leading accounting firm in an appeal in a securities fraud action brought by alleged victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme; a foreign government-owned oil company in an appeal of a $300 million arbitration award that has been vacated in the forum nation; a major electric power company in a Second Circuit appeal from a $450 million judgment; a large foreign aircraft manufacturer in an appeal in the New York State courts; a leading performing rights organization in a Second Circuit appeals involving the application of the copyright laws to music downloaded on the Internet and royalties due for music transmitted to mobile devices; a firm active in the mortgage-backed securities industry in a successful appeals in the New York Court of Appeals and the Second Circuit; and forty leading academic medical centers in a successful appeal to the Second Circuit in a Justice Department action under the False Claims Act.
In white collar and other litigation matters, Ira's clients have included a major insurance company under investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office, SEC, and U.S. Attorney's Office; a leading national bank sued by the New York Attorney General’s Office on claims relating to its mortgage foreclosure practices; several educational institutions under investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office; a foreign bank under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office; individuals charged with insider trading by the SEC; companies and individuals under investigation for federal tax offenses; and other individuals who were the subjects of state and federal grand jury investigations. He has also handled civil litigation matters involving contract, fraud and RICO claims for major firm clients in the aircraft, healthcare and other industries, as well as (on a pro bono basis) litigation involving the constitutionality of the State of Connecticut's campaign finance laws.
Prior to joining Hogan & Hartson in 2000, Ira spent 11 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. For six years, Ira was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases, principally white collar cases including securities fraud, mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, customs matters, and criminal tax offenses. Thereafter, Ira served for five years as first Deputy Chief and then Chief Appellate Attorney for the Criminal Division. As Chief Appellate Attorney, Ira was the chief legal advisor to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and regularly provided counsel to the U.S. Attorney and her assistants on legal matters, grand jury and trial practice, and strategic issues. He was also responsible for all briefs filed by the Office in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and worked closely with the Solicitor General's Office on appellate issues. He has argued at least 25 appeals in the Second Circuit and other appellate courts, and briefed in excess of 100 appeals.
At Harvard Law School, Ira was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, with principal responsibility for its annual Supreme Court review. Following graduation, he served as law clerk to Chief Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ira was a litigation partner with a leading law firm in Los Angeles.
Ira has taught a course on Federal Criminal Law at Harvard Law School, and also has taught International Criminal Law at Seton Hall Law School.