2 BigLaw lawyers are on Michael Cohen's list of special master picks
Michael Cohen/a katz (Shutterstock.com).
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has included two BigLaw lawyers on his list of potential special masters to conduct a privilege review of documents seized in FBI raids of his home, office and hotel room earlier this month.
Federal prosecutors, on the other hand, recommended three former magistrate judges, though they continued to stress that their own taint team can handle the job, report the American Lawyer, the New York Times and Law360.
U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood had indicated in a hearing Monday that she was considering appointing a special master, as requested by lawyers for Cohen and President Donald Trump. She rejected their request, however, to conduct their own review to screen out privileged documents.
The BigLaw lawyers on Cohen’s list are Ropes & Gray white-collar defense partner Joan McPhee and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy partner George Canellos, who leads the firm’s litigation and arbitration group.
Also on Cohen’s list are Park Jensen Bennett partner Tai Park and Bart Schwartz, chairman of the investigations and security firm Guidepost Solutions.
All four lawyers on Cohen’s list are former federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan.
The former magistrate judges on prosecutors’ list are all from the Southern District of New York. Two of them—Frank Maas and Theodore Katz—now work for JAMS. The third is City University of New York law lecturer James Francis IV.