Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
Perkins Coie has hired as a partner Adam Schuman, the firm’s first former federal prosecutor in its New York office, signaling the Seattle-based firm’s strategy to compete for white-collar and investigations work in the city.
Perkins Coie has one other white-collar and investigations partner in New York, Keith Miller, who is managing partner of the office and a former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorney. The firm, which opened its New York office in 2011 with just one attorney, now has 44 lawyers in Manhattan. Founded in Seattle, Perkins Coie is well known for its political law work in Washington, D.C., especially for the Democratic Party.
Adam Schuman
Schuman was most recently special counsel for public integrity for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, where he advised Cuomo on ethics, risk and compliance matters. He was counsel to the governor amid the September 2016 charges by the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office against two former top aides to Cuomo and the former president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, alleging bribery, corruption and fraud in connection with the way the Cuomo administration dispensed hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development projects.
Schuman was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York from 1999 to 2002. In the scandal depicted in “The Wolf of Wall Street” movie, he was a lead prosecutor against Harry Shuster, a business executive tied to Stratton Oakmont who was convicted at a 2001 trial.
After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he spent 12 years at McGraw-Hill/Standard & Poor’s, including as executive managing director and chief legal officer. Afterward, he was general counsel for a state agency, New York State Homes and Community Renewal, and then moved to the governor’s office in 2016.
Schuman said he was already close with Perkins Coie, as the firm was often representing his previous employer, S&P.
Schuman, 52, said his addition reflects the firm’s “commitment to grow in the office,” including its white-collar practice. “It rounds us very well,” he said, noting a bench of former federal prosecutors in other offices.
