Greenberg Traurig office/Photo by J. Albert Diaz

Ben Greenberg, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has joined Greenberg Traurig's white-collar litigation practice based out of Miami.

Greenberg oversaw 200 attorneys as acting head of South Florida's U.S. Attorney's Office between March 2017 and September 2018. Former Miami-Dade circuit court judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan succeeded Greenberg after being nominated by President Donald Trump last year.

The former prosecutor said that after nearly two decades working for the federal government, he was ready for a change, and Greenberg Traurig was his first choice for the private sector.

"For me, it was really, without question, the top place for me to go to. I grew up in Miami, and Greenberg Traurig has always had a great reputation," Greenberg said.

Ben Greenberg

He was also impressed by the firm's focus on prevention and compliance — areas his experience has taught him go a long way.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," he said.

Nathan Muyskens, Greenberg Traurig's white-collar practice co-chair, said in a statement that Greenberg is a perfect fit for the firm's practice, which will continue to grow at the behest of client demand.

"His arrival helps bolster our already strong capabilities in white-collar defense, and internal and government investigations to meet increasing client demand," Muyskens said.

After landing in the U.S. attorney's office in 2000, Greenberg spent his first several years prosecuting white-collar, violent crime and narcotics cases. He then took his first steps into management, serving as the first chief of the special prosecution section and overseeing cases involving violent crime, child exploitation and human trafficking.

In 2009 he was appointed as chief of the office's narcotics section. A year later, then-U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer appointed Greenberg to be his first assistant, the No. 2 role in the office.

When Ferrer resigned in February of 2017 to join Holland & Knight (Ferrer was tapped to head the firm's Miami office in March), Greenberg was elevated to acting U.S. attorney. When Fajardo Orshan took over, he served again as first assistant for six months and then as senior litigation counsel — the title he held when he left for Greenberg Traurig.

After losing several attorneys earlier in the year to competitors in South Florida — including Morrison Foerster, Jones Day, Shutts & Bowen and Stumphauzer & Sloman — Greenberg has gone on a hiring tear. Several notable South Florida lateral hires include Bilzin Sumberg partner Michael Kreitzer, Akerman partner Rebecca Ocariz and Holland & Knight corporate partner Michael Taylor.

Between January and September of this year, the firm added a net total of 133 attorneys. The figure amounts to a net head count growth of 6% year over year.

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