Biglaw

Biglaw Circles The Wagons, Say One Of Their Own Doesn't Deserve Jail Time Despite Felony Conviction

His lawyers argue he's been punished enough.

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Evan Greebel and Martin Shkreli

If you’re the type of person who keeps up with Biglaw gossip, then you’ve surely heard the name Evan Greebel before. He’s the former partner at both Katten Muchin — where he worked for more than a decade — and Kaye Scholer who was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The conviction stems from his work with infamous pharma bro, Martin Shkreli. Greebel was outside counsel for pharmaceutical company Retrophin from 2012 to 2014. During that time, prosecutors alleged Greebel assisted Shkreli in using Retrophin’s assets to pay investors in unrelated hedge funds run by Shkreli through the use of phony settlement and consulting agreements and fraudulently backdating agreements.

Now sentencing time is rolling around — scheduled for August 9th — and Greebel faces up to 20 years in prison. But his lawyers — he’s repped by Gibson Dunn — have submitted a sentencing memo asking Judge Kiyo Matsumoto for no jail time. Attached to the memo are some 180 letters asking for leniency, and quite a few from Greebel’s former Biglaw partners.

One such former partner, Murray Schwartz, now a partner at Warshaw Burstein and a former village justice in New York, as reported by Law.com laid the blame for Greebel’s legal woes at Shkreli’s feet, not an unfamiliar strategy for the defense:

“Evan Greebel had a terrible encounter with the devil incarnate and sadly the devil often wins,” Schwartz wrote, apparently referring to Greebel’s ties to Shkreli. “As a sitting judge, I used to divide mentally those defendants who would hurt someone from those that would not. Evan will not hurt a soul.”

Troy Foster, partner at Perkins Coie and former colleague of Greebel’s, agrees the pharma bro should shoulder the responsibility:

“I know well the pressures to perform in the setting of a large private law firm,” said Foster, who was a summer associate with Greebel at Fried Frank. “We have to trust that our partners in specialized practice areas are giving sound guidance. … And, most importantly we need to trust our clients to give us accurate information and conduct themselves in accordance with the standards of basic decency. Evan’s client apparently failed on every count, and the resulting fiasco swept Evan up into this case.”

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While Elan Keller, a former partner of Greebel who is now at Reed Smith,  pointed to past instances of Greebel’s legal ethics to argue he shouldn’t serve any time in jail:

Keller, in his own letter, explained that Greebel turned down a prospective client proposing a tax structure that wouldn’t pass muster. “Evan showed professional responsibility and integrity (and a lack of disappointment) even when faced with losing out on getting credit and attribution for substantial fees from a prospective client,” Keller said.

His lawyers pointed to Greebel’s “shattered” career and life — he’s been disbarred and is unlikely to be able to practice law again — as well as his “dire” financial straights to contend that he’s been adequately punished and should not serve jail time:

But unemployed since 2016 and tasked with mounting a defense in a criminal trial, “his financial situation is—and will likely remain—dire,” his attorneys said, noting a presentencing report that said he has “a contingent liability of several million dollars to the insurance company which paid for his legal defense.”

If only all non-violent offenders were able to mount such compelling arguments against their incarceration.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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