Renée L. Jarusinsky

Renée L. Jarusinsky is a nationally-recognized white-collar practitioner, having spent the majority of her 25-year career investigating and litigating high-profile and complex financial matters. Her cases have focused on asset forfeiture, money laundering, sanctions, not-for-profit and government contract fraud, pension fraud, market manipulation, insider trading, accounting fraud, self-dealing, campaign finance schemes, and identity theft and bank fraud. She brings to her clients and cases the perspective she gained from having been both a defense attorney and a prosecutor.

Renée represents domestic and foreign individuals and institutions, including for-profit and not-for-profit entities. In addition to her defense practice, she has been trusted by boards of directors, general counsel, and leadership teams to conduct internal investigations, advocate before government agencies, advise on risk management, and guide clients through the process of law enforcement referrals. Renée is known for her strong attention to detail, her aptitude for quickly mastering complex facts, and her innate talent to communicate effectively with all, from judges and adversaries to co-counsel, clients, witnesses, and survivors. She is trained and experienced in conducting trauma-informed interviews.

Select Engagements:

• Conducted independent investigation on behalf of a philanthropic foundation, uncovered conduct that corroborated allegations of sexual misconduct by the Executive Director, and recommended corrective action.
• U.S. v. M/Y Amadea (S.D.N.Y. and 2d Cir.) – Serve as co-lead counsel in this civil forfeiture proceeding representing the owner of a $300 million superyacht seized by the Department of Justice as part of its enforcement actions against sanctioned Russian interests, currently up on appeal.
• Successfully staved off indictment of the Executive Director of a Washington D.C. think tank in connection with a grand jury investigation of Discovery in Aid of Foreign Proceedings violations.
• Represent foreign entities in 18 U.S.C. Section 1782 petitions to obtain discovery from U.S.-based entities for use in foreign proceedings.
• Represent an individual in connection with allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney's office that he engaged in "pump and dump" schemes of thinly-traded microcap stocks.
• Advise a not-for-profit organization relating to issues stemming from employee misconduct, including referral to and cooperation with federal prosecutors.
• Convinced the New York City Department of Investigation not to include allegations of wrongdoing against her client (a not-for-profit entity) in an anticipated public report.

Prior to joining Ford O'Brien Landy, Renée served as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office for more than a decade. Her most recent position was as Deputy Chief of the Public Corruption Unit ("PCU"), where she supervised corruption investigations conducted by Assistant District Attorneys, investigators, legal interns, paralegals, and other staff. In this role, she was a member of the supervisory team that oversaw the investigation into then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and his operatives relating to the financing of certain state senate campaigns. She also handled her own caseload, including a long-term investigation and subsequent prosecution of the head of two government-funded not-for-profit entities for stealing from the entities in myriad ways. Prior to her role as Deputy Chief, she served as an Assistant District Attorney in PCU, the Rackets Bureau, and a Trial Bureau, as well as a Major Case Assistant for the Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau. Renée has obtained guilty verdicts after conducting multiple jury trials to verdict and has presented scores of cases, including complex matters, to the grand jury.

Prior to her work at the DA's Office, Renée served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Public Integrity Bureau at the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where she conducted complex civil and criminal investigations. There, she served on the team investigating then-Governor David Paterson for perjury and witness tampering. She also received the Louis J. Lefkowitz Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in connection with a statewide investigation of private attorneys who wrongfully received state pension benefits in connection with their representation of public entity clients.

Earlier in her career, Renée was an associate at two law firms, including Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, where she represented individuals and entities in connection with white collar criminal and civil matters, and commercial and civil rights litigation. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Owen, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

Five years ago, Renée founded The New Castelfranco Society, a virtual community of descendants of her grandmother's hometown in Italy, and she is conversational in Italian. She also has volunteered at and provided financial support to a school in Kenya that she has visited several times.