Joon Kim has returned to the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office as chief counsel to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Kim, 41, who has been a partner in the litigation and enforcement group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton since 2006, was an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan from 2000 to 2006. Kim, who prosecuted a wide variety of crimes, including racketeering, murder, money laundering and securities fraud, spent the last four years of his time in the office in the organized crime and terrorism unit prosecuting. Among the convictions he helped secure was that of Gambino crime boss Peter Gotti for conspiring to kill Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano.
Kim, a 1996 graduate of Harvard Law School, clerked for Southern District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum until 1997, when he joined Cleary as an associate. In 2000, he moved to the U.S. attorney’s office and rejoined Cleary in 2006. In his most recent stint at Cleary, he focused on white-collar criminal defense and regulatory enforcement, commercial civil litigation and international arbitration. He also represented corporations and individuals under investigation for securities fraud, insider trading, accounting fraud, antitrust violations and corruption.
