Ken Breen is a partner in the Litigation practice of Paul Hastings. He is a former federal prosecutor and a seasoned trial attorney whose practice focuses on corporate internal investigations and on representing corporate and individual clients in regulatory enforcement, white-collar criminal and litigation matters.

Mr. Breen has conducted internal investigations for, and otherwise represented, numerous public and private companies, and their boards and committees, as well as hedge funds, private equity firms, accounting firms and universities.  For these clients, he has handled matters involving a wide range of issues, including Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory compliance programs, insider trading, corporate and accounting fraud, securities fraud, health care fraud, anti-kickback statute violations, antitrust and trade regulation violations, tax fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, lending practice violations and public corruption.  Mr. Breen also represents executives and directors of such entities, as well as public officials.

In connection with these matters, Mr. Breen regularly represents clients in court and before the United States Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the New York State Attorney General's Office, FINRA, CBOE, CME and other self-regulatory organizations and federal and state agencies.

As a prosecutor, Mr. Breen was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where he served as Deputy Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section.  While Deputy Chief, Mr. Breen supervised the U.S. Attorney's Office's white-collar and securities fraud section during a period when the office brought a series of high-profile corporate and securities fraud cases.  As an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief, Mr. Breen personally investigated, charged and tried to verdict a wide range of white-collar crimes, including securities fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, corporate and accounting fraud, tax fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations and other financial crimes.  Mr. Breen served as the lead prosecutor in the highly-publicized Elgindy case, in which Amr Elgindy, a prominent Internet stock advisor, and a former FBI agent were convicted after a 15-week long trial of racketeering, insider trading, market manipulation and other crimes.  Mr. Breen also served as lead trial counsel in United States vs. Moshe Milstein, in which the defendant was convicted after a five-week long trial of selling in excess of $4 million of misbranded, counterfeit and contaminated injectable fertility drugs and Parkinson's disease drugs.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Breen prosecuted tax crimes for four years as a trial attorney in the Department of Justice's Tax Division, in Washington, D.C.

After his government service and prior to joining Paul Hastings, Mr. Breen practiced in New York, focusing on internal investigations and regulatory defense and white collar criminal matters.

As a defense attorney and federal prosecutor, Mr. Breen has tried more than 40 cases to verdict, and has argued on multiple occasions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Breen was cited in 2010 as a leading lawyer in white collar and government investigations in New York by Chambers USA, a referral guide to leading lawyers in the United States based on the opinions of their peers and clients.  He has also been recognized as a "New York Super Lawyer - Criminal Defense:  White Collar" by Super Lawyers Magazine every year since the ranking's inception in 2006.

Mr. Breen has written and spoken on a number of topics, including securities fraud, insider trading, the subprime mortgage industry meltdown, hedge fund risks, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  His articles have appeared in the prestigious magazine of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The Champion, as well as the New York Law Journal, Bloomberg Law Reports, and many others.

Mr. Breen received his B.A. in English (cum laude) from Boston College in 1989, and his J.D. from the Boston College School of Law in 1992, where he was annotation editor and staff writer for the Uniform Commercial Code Reporter Digest. 

Mr. Breen is a member of the New York bar and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Breen is a frequent lecturer and author on white collar crime and securities law topics. Recent publications and speaking engagements include the following:

Publications:

• "Securities Fraud," The Champion, the magazine of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, co-columnist, April 2007 - Present
• "Wiretaps Meet Privileged Conversations," New York Law Journal, co-author with Douglas Koff and Sean Haran, July 2010
• "Honest Services," The Champion, co-author with Sean Haran, December 2009
• "Insider Trading Charges Under Section 1348 - Without the Technical Elements," The Champion,  co-author with Keith W. Miller, October 2008
• "Hedge Fund Litigation: Holding a Hedge Fund Service Provider Responsible for a Hedge Fund's Collapse Just Got Harder," Bloomberg Law Reports, Vol. 2, No. 37, September 2008
• "Increased Scrutiny of 10b5-1 Plans on Horizon?" New York Law Journal,  co-author with Barry Sher, December 2007 
• "Issues in the Advancement of Legal Fees," The Champion, co-author, March 2007
• "Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Growing Teeth,"  The Champion, co-author, August 2006
"KPMG and the Future of Legal Fees Advancement," New York Law Journal, co-author, July 14, 2006 
• "Defining and Defending Obstruction Charges in the Wake of Arthur Anderson and Quattrone," The Champion, co-author, June 2006
• "Tax Crimes: More Aggressive Government Policies and Practices," The Champion, co-author, April 2006
• "New Life For Selective Waiver," The Champion, co-author, January/February 2006
• "The KPMG Deferred Prosecution: Warning Flags for Defense Rights," The Champion, co-author, November 2005

Speeches:

• "How to Minimize Hedge Fund Risk: Litigation Trends and Risk Management Issues Relating to the Sub prime Mortgage Meltdown," Paul Hastings CLE Seminar, October 2007
• "The Expanded Role of Government - Civil and Criminal - in Securities and Corporate Law," The University of Texas School of Law, 29th Annual Conference on Securities Regulation and Business Law, February 2007
• "Criminal and Regulatory Dangers of Alternative Financing: Understanding the Risks and Ways to Protect Yourself," The Reverse Merger Conference 2006 (DealFlow Media), New York, July 20, 2006
• "Protecting Your Officers and Directors - 2006 Update," Fulbright & Jaworski Seminar, The Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa, April 2006
• "Government Investigations -- What the Government Expects, Privilege Issues and How Best to Protect Your Company," The University of Texas School of Law, 28th Annual Conference on Securities Regulation and Business Law, February 2006