Courtesy photo

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo—freshly rebranded as “Mintz”—bolstered its white-collar and litigation practices this week with a pair of prominent former prosecutors in the Northeast.

The firm announced on Monday that it would be adding former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher of counsel Jason Halperin as a partner in its corporate investigations, enforcement and white-collar practices in Manhattan.

In Boston, where Mintz is based, the firm announced last week that longtime Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley would be joining as special counsel and as a senior adviser for its lobbying arm, ML Strategies.

After 16 years as Boston's top state prosecutor, Conley announced in February that he would not be seeking re-election. He didn't have any specific career destination in mind when he made the announcement, he said, but he grabbed a cup of coffee with a longtime friend and a litigation partner at Mintz soon afterward and the wheels were put in motion.

Jason P.W. Halperin

“I had mentioned to him that of all the firms in the city that I'd like to work for, Mintz Levin was at the very top of the list,” said Conley, whose first official day at the firm will be Oct. 15. So he asked if there was a place at Mintz for him and it all moved forward from there, he said.

Conley began his long career in public service in 1984 as assistant district attorney in the Suffolk DA's office. In 1993, he was elected to the Boston City Council and moved into private practice, joining Boston-based litigation shop Boyle Shaughnessy & Campo as an associate attorney.

In February 2002, he was appointed district attorney of Suffolk County, where he would remain for four consecutive terms. Conley oversaw 270 attorneys and staff handling some 35,000 criminal matters, including the 2017 double-murder trial against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.

He also worked to overhaul the city's approach to police-related shooting investigations, conviction integrity, eyewitness identification and human trafficking.

“The city of Boston is demonstratively safer than it was 16 years ago, and I'm very proud of that accomplishment,” Conley said. “But now it's time for me to exit the stage and I couldn't be more fortunate to be invited into this great firm.”

At Mintz, Conley said he will split his time between working with the litigation team at the law firm and working with ML Strategies, particularly with respect to its representation of corporations wanting to develop real estate projects in Boston.

Daniel Conley.

“We're a thriving city, a growing city and I see a good opportunity here for me to leverage my relationships at City Hall and my insider's knowledge of city government to really help our clients reach and attain their goals,” Conley said.

Halperin, the firm's new hire in New York, said what drew him primarily to the firm was the opportunity to reunite with his former SDNY colleague David Siegal to help build out the firm's white-collar practice. Siegal joined the firm in May from Haynes and Boone, where he co-chaired its government enforcement and litigation practice,

“I was really intrigued and attracted to the dynamic and growing white-collar presence that Mintz has, especially in New York,” Halperin said.

Halperin began his legal career as an associate at Schulte Roth & Zabel in New York in 1999 before taking a clerkship with Judge Ricardo Urbina at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In 2002, he joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, leaving two years later to join the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. As an SDNY prosecutor, he took on some of the most high-profile matters in the office, and never lost a case.

Halperin left public service in 2015 to join Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as of counsel, handling mainly white-collar matters and internal investigations.

“I'm really excited about joining, I'm really excited to be here and I'm really excited about the future at Mintz,” Halperin said.

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