Biography
Breon Peace’s practice focuses on a range of high-stakes complex litigation, regulatory and enforcement matters, government and internal investigations, and white-collar defense.
He represents domestic and multinational corporations and business executives in sophisticated, high-profile regulatory and criminal investigations involving, among other things, allegations of fraud, insider trading, money laundering, and corruption. He regularly conducts sensitive internal investigations on behalf of boards of directors and management of leading corporations as well as advises board and audit committees on crisis management, corporate governance issues, and compliance programs.
Breon frequently handles matters involving authorities in the United States, including the Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, various state attorneys general, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In addition to domestic representations, he handles significant cross-border compliance and enforcement matters and investigations involving various constituencies and stakeholders.
From 2021-2025, Breon served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, leading one of the largest and most prominent U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the nation and overseeing some of the most significant prosecutions in the country involving national security, complex financial fraud, corruption, civil rights, violent crime and international criminal organizations, and cartels. These included historic enforcement actions encompassing violations of export control laws, sanctions and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), complex securities fraud, cartels, money laundering, cybercrimes, and provision of material support of designated terrorist organizations. Breon also oversaw major cases in civil practice areas, including False Claims Act, Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, healthcare fraud, consumer protection, civil rights, and environmental justice, as well as the defense of federal government interests in cases involving immigration, torts, medical malpractice, and civil rights. During his tenure as a U.S. Attorney, Breon was appointed by the Attorney General to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), which advises the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure and management impacting the U.S. Attorney’s Offices. He also served as Chairperson of the AGAC White Collar Fraud Subcommittee, which played a key role in making recommendations to the AGAC to facilitate the prevention, investigation and prosecution of various financially motivated, non-violent crimes, including bank fraud and wire fraud. As U.S. Attorney, Breon initiated policies encouraging and rewarding corporate cooperation and focused on crime prevention through community outreach, programming, and relationship-building initiatives.
Breon first joined the firm as an associate in 1996. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York from 1997 to 1998. Thereafter, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York where he handled a wide array of federal criminal investigations and prosecutions trying cases to verdict and arguing appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. From August 2002 to July 2003, Breon was an Acting Assistant Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law where he taught the Prosecution Clinic. In 2003, he returned to the firm and was elected partner in 2007.
Following his service as a U.S. Attorney, Breon rejoined the firm as a partner in 2025.
