Mr Martin Perschetz > Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Martin L. Perschetz concentrates his practice in the areas of white-collar criminal defense, SEC enforcement, securities litigation, accountant’s liability and other large commercial litigation. With the firm for more than 30 years, Marty was previously an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he was chief of the Major Crimes Unit and led a team of prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of federal criminal cases involving a wide variety of complex business and tax frauds. Immediately before coming to SRZ, he served as chief counsel to the Mayor of New York City’s Special Commission to Investigate City Contracts and as deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation. Drawing on four decades of broad and deep prosecutorial, investigative, defense and trial experience, Marty has represented a wide array of clients in significant matters involving federal and state prosecutors, the SEC, the NYSE and FINRA, as well as in large and complex private civil litigation and in corporate internal investigations. His clients in securities and financial statement matters have included PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Big Four accounting firm auditors; investment funds Millennium Partners and The Clinton Group; various other large financial institutions and public companies, such as Monster Beverage Corporation; and former senior officials at Merck, Vivendi Universal, Kmart Corp. and other large companies.

In the Vivendi Universal matter, following a four-month trial in the Southern District of New York, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Marty’s client, Vivendi’s former Chief Financial Officer, on all claims against him. Believed to be the largest federal securities class action ever to proceed to a jury verdict, the case involved numerous complex issues under the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, and under U.S. and French Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The American Lawyer named Marty a “Litigator of the Week” for his successful work on the Vivendi trial. In addition, Marty successfully defended the former chief scientist of Merck & Co. Inc. in a high-profile securities class action and related cases concerning the painkiller Vioxx. He is a former co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Group and a former member of the Executive Committee.