Legal News

The New ?World?s District Attorney?

By Nathan Koppel

Robert Morgenthau, during his three decades as Manhattan DA, was known as the world's district attorney, because he took on Wall Street banks, which of course do business worldwide.

So Will Cyrus Vance Jr. (pictured far left), who replaced Morgenthau this year, also qualify as a world-beater?

WSJ’s Amir Efrati profiles the 55-year-old Vance, who's five weeks into his new gig.

Vance (Georgetown; Yale Law) is already making noise that he'll be the latest New York-based prosecutor to claim jurisdiction over high-profile white-collar cases, feds be damned.

Vance is launching an effort to prosecute New Yorkers who evade taxes through offshore accounts, and he plans to form a "major economic crimes bureau," vowing to Efrati that he'll pursue financial frauds even if critics claim that he's encroaching on the fed's turf.

Vance, for example, is investigating alleged fraud by Connecticut hedge fund Plainfield Asset management even though that falls squarely within the jurisdiction of federal securities regulators.

"We're going to be active in all areas of the financial community," said Vance, noting that he will devote more prosecutors to white-collar cases.

Settlements in financial prosecutions can be cash cows for the Manhattan DA's office, allowing some prosecutors to get raises even in recessionary times.

But lest the business community grow too concerned about Vance, none other than Eliot Spitzer says not to worry. Spitzer in the 1980s worked with Vance in the Manhattan DA's office. Vance is a "very careful lawyer," Spitzer says, who "understands business . . . and is not one to act precipitously or without care."

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 22, 2010 (boomark / email).