Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Schwartz – who looms large in the nightmares of disgraced City Treasurer Corey Kemp, convicted City Councilman Rick Mariano and other corrupt public officials in the region – will head back to the private sector later this month, joining up with Pepper Hamilton’s White Collar and Corporate Investigations Practice Group.
Schwartz has been in the U.S. Attorney’s office for 13 years, where he served as chief of the public corruption unit since 2002. Schwartz is the most senior of several assistant U.S. attorneys with extensive corruption law experience to leave the office recently, including Amy Kurland and Joan Markman, who are now full-time watchdogs in the Nutter administration.
It was just a wonderful opportunity, and in my mind the time was right,” Schwartz said. “We had accomplished an awful lot in the public corruption area over the last five years.”
At Pepper, Schwartz said he would use his “investigative background to counsel corporations on internal investigations.”
He also plans to do work for Pepper’s media division, representing journalists accused of libel or defamation and for news outlets litigating open records matters.
Schwartz has strong ties to several Pepper attorneys, including former federal prosecutor Thomas M. Gallagher, who heads the white collar and corporate investigations group.
Despite the recent loss of so many experienced prosecutors, Schwarz said the U.S. Attorney’s office was still stocked with attorneys well-versed in trying public corruption cases.
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