Lisa Zornberg

Lisa Zornberg has extensive trial experience in both criminal and civil matters.  She focuses her practice on white collar defense, regulatory enforcement actions, internal investigations for corporations and financial institutions, and high-stakes civil litigation.

Lisa most recently served as chief counsel to the mayor of New York City and City Hall, where she advised on legal and policy matters, was general counsel to over one thousand employees, and supervised the City offices that handle administrative trials, contracts, labor relations, and risk management.

Prior to her work with the mayor, Lisa spent over four years as a litigation partner for a leading global law firm where she also served as co-head of associate training for the firm’s litigation practice.

From 2016 through 2018, Lisa served as Chief of the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In that role, she supervised approximately 170 federal prosecutors and oversaw the office’s criminal investigations and prosecutions of securities fraud, cybercrime, health care fraud, U.S. sanctions violations, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases, RICO violations, terrorism, public corruption, construction fraud, art fraud and drug offenses.

Lisa first joined the United States Attorney’s Office in 1998 and was an assistant U.S. attorney in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions, rising to supervisory ranks in each. She was Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Civil Division and then later served as Chief of the Complex Frauds Unit in the Criminal Division. She received the Justice Department’s John Marshall Award in 2011 for prosecution of union corruption and the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation’s Prosecutor of the Year award in 2010. Having tried 15 cases to verdict in both civil and criminal cases, she was given the nickname the “tiny tornado” by a New York newspaper.

Lisa is a former national vice chair of the American Bar Association’s White Collar Committee, a former co-chair of the United Jewish Appeal’s White Collar & Securities Enforcement Executive Committee, a former Board member of the Federal Bar Council, and a former Board member of The Office of the Appellate Defender.

Lisa graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994 and magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1991. Early in her legal career, she clerked for the Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, when Justice Sotomayor served as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.