Pryor Cashman LLP is pleased to announce that Jeffrey Alberts has joined the firm as a partner and leader of the White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice. He joins Pryor Cashman from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he served for six years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division and played a key role in the Asset Forfeiture Unit.
“As result of increased government oversight, there is a thorny brier of regulations that require deft skill to understand and navigate. Jeff brings to our clients an insider’s perspective that is a perfect complement to our current capabilities. We are thrilled to have him on board,” said Ronald H. Shechtman, Pryor Cashman’s managing partner.
Alberts’s practice will focus on government investigations and prosecutions, asset forfeiture and money laundering litigation, victims’ rights representation, and complex civil litigation.
“Pryor Cashman allows me to transfer my white collar government experience into the private practice and build a practice that focuses on my interest in asset forfeiture matters and international art,” said Alberts.
Alberts will also support the firm’s Art Law Practice. His knowledge of asset forfeiture, especially as it pertains to priceless works of art, will be valuable to the firm’s clients which include galleries, dealers, lenders, collectors, heirs and artists themselves, as they navigate the challenges to ownership, provenance and authenticity of their collections.
While in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Alberts played an instrumental role in several high profile cases for which he received a number of awards. He was instrumental in the asset forfeiture proceedings against Marc Dreier for which he was awarded the 2010 Department of Justice John Marshall Award, the Department’s highest honor for legal excellence. Alberts also was the recipient of the 2009 Department of Justice National Asset Forfeiture Award for his role in the forfeiture of over $500 million in proceeds of the fraud at Refco, Inc., which was once the largest independent U.S. futures trader. He also received international recognition for successfully representing the U.S. Government in an asset forfeiture jury trial concerning a stolen artwork created by the renowned artist Camille Pissarro and returning the artwork to the French Government.
Alberts is a 2001 cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was the Associate Editor of the Law Review. He has a Masters degree in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from the University of Washington, where he was awarded the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Medal as the top scholar in the college.
