Senate Confirms Fishman as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey

On October 7, 2009, the United States Senate confirmed FKSA partner Paul J. Fishman as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Mr. Fishman has led FKSA's white-collar practice for the last eleven years.

From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Fishman worked in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice. He spent ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey, from 1983 to 1993. While in the United States Attorney's Office, he worked in the Office's Special Prosecutions Division, served as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division/Chief of Narcotics, Chief of the Criminal Division, and First Assistant. He coordinated Trenton's Weed & Seed program, including helping to implement a Violent Offenders Removal Program and, with the Mayor's office, a Safe Haven program keeping schools open after hours for additional activities. Following law school, Mr. Fishman clerked for Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He graduated from Princeton University (1978) and Harvard Law School (1982), where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.

In recommending Mr. Fishman's appointment, New Jersey Senators Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez told President Obama, "Mr. Fishman is exceptionally well qualified for this post, with fourteen years of experience in the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice, working on a range of issues from complex securities litigation to combating criminal activity related to illegal firearms and gangs." The Senators said that since leaving government service, Mr. Fishman "has been a prominent and highly regarded attorney handling hundreds of civil and white-collar criminal matters.…That combination of experience, together with his strong intellect and unquestioned integrity, make him a superb choice."