A partner in the Litigation Department, Michele Hirshman focuses her practice on white collar defense and regulatory enforcement matters and internal investigations.
Michele regularly advises financial institutions, educational institutions, media and advertising companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, political organizations and public and private company executives and public officials in high-profile, high-stakes federal and state criminal, civil regulatory and internal investigations. She has represented public and privately held companies and individuals before the U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorneys’ offices, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, the New York and Massachusetts Attorneys General, the New York State Department of Financial Services and other federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory authorities and in connection with sensitive, significant employment matters.
Michele’s significant representations include:
- 21st Century Fox in investigations concerning Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and other related matters;
- Bank of New York Mellon in regulatory matters and litigation and arising out of the bank’s foreign exchange standing instruction orders;
- Columbia University in a variety of Title IX matters, including a lawsuit brought by a student alleging violation of Title IX and other claims arising out of alleged defamation and harassment of plaintiff by another student;
- Major financial institutions and their executives and directors in global investigations relating to compliance with Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering requirements and accounting issues; and
- Merck in litigation and regulatory investigations relating to Vioxx.
Michele is regularly consulted in matters involving high profile business and personal reputational concerns. She has significant jury trial and appellate court experience, and she regularly speaks at conferences and on panels advising other practitioners in the field. She also works on a broad range of criminal and civil pro bono cases with young lawyers at the firm, and previously was a member of the Boards of Directors of The Legal Aid Society and the City Bar Justice Center.
Prior to joining Paul, Weiss, Michele served for eight years as First Deputy Attorney General for the State of New York and for eleven years as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she was the Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney and Chief of the General Crimes and Public Corruption Units.
Michele received the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement from the U.S. Department of Justice. She is recognized in Chambers USA as a leading lawyer for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations; in Legal 500 for White-Collar Criminal Defense and General Commercial Disputes; in The Best Lawyers in America for Criminal Defense: White-Collar; and in Benchmark Litigation as a Local Litigation Star for New York. Benchmark has consistently named her to its Top 250 Women in Litigation guide.
Michele was articles editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Updated June 2021
