Spitzer picks Paul Weiss in prostitution probe

New York governor Eliot Spitzer has picked Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison white-collar defense partner Michele Hirshman to represent him in a criminal probe pertaining to his alleged involvement as a client in a prostitution ring, writes the National Law Journal.

Hirshman served as the first deputy Attorney General under Spitzer when he was New York State Attorney General, playing a major role in his high-profile investigations of alleged misconduct by various Wall Street figures before joining Paul Weiss last year.

The news comes after federal authorities alleged that Spitzer was caught on a wiretap discussing payments and details of meeting a prostitute in a Washington DC hotel room. The woman allegedly worked for the Emperor's Club VIP, a company in New York that authorities allege operated as a front for a prostitution ring.

At Paul Weiss, she is part of a white-collar defense team that includes Theodore Wells, who defended presidential aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby over the leak of a CIA officer's identity to the press, and Mark Pomerantz, whose past clients include former Credit Suisse investment banker Frank Quattrone.

In 2001, Hirshman told the New York Law Journal the Attorney General's office was an "institution [where] women could get a law job as opposed to a secretarial job in numbers far beyond 'one here, one there'" .

Hirshman did not return messages seeking comment.

The National Law Journal is a US sister title of Legal Week.

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