Paul Butler

Paul W. Butler represents companies and individuals in government and corporate internal investigations and related civil litigation. Mr. Butler represents clients in a wide variety of matters relating to federal criminal and regulatory enforcement, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities laws, federal contracts, electronic surveillance, and export control and sanctions laws and regulations. Mr. Butler is also a leader of the firm’s national security and homeland security practice group. Prior to joining the firm, he served in several senior positions within the U.S. Department of Defense and as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted terrorism, organized crime and white collar fraud cases. Immediately prior to joining the firm, Mr. Butler served as the special assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. As the secretary’s chief of staff, he formatted, developed and implemented the Defense Department’s policies, programs and goals, including defense policy and strategy, intelligence, budget programming and execution, and personnel and readiness issues. Previously, Mr. Butler served as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense and as deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict (SO/LIC), in which capacity he advised the Office of the Secretary of Defense on policies and plans related to the global war on terrorism and special operations forces and represented the Defense Department in U.S. government interagency meetings, before Congress and in negotiations with foreign governments. From 1998 to 2002 Mr. Butler was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He was one of the trial prosecutors in United States v. Usama Bin Laden, et al., the U.S. government’s indictment of the leadership of al Qaeda prior to the 9/11 attacks, which resulted in the successful convictions after a six-month trial of four defendants for their roles in the attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He also briefed and argued cases on behalf of the government before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. During his tenure in government, Mr. Butler received the Defense Department’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the Justice Department’s Distinguished Service Award and the Central Intelligence Agency’s Seal Medallion Award. He maintains a Top Secret security clearance. Before joining the government, Mr. Butler spent seven years in private practice in the New York and Washington offices of Cahill Gordon & Reindel litigating First Amendment, securities, civil and criminal antitrust, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters and handling corporate internal investigations. He also served for two years as law clerk to the Honorable Louis C. Bechtle, the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.