The Paul, Weiss Litigation Department is led by a team of the country’s most accomplished trial lawyers. Our litigators handle the most complex and demanding lawsuits, class actions, government investigations, criminal prosecutions and restructurings. Our clients include Fortune 50 corporations and other prominent companies in the financial services, investment, medical device, pharmaceutical, sports, technology, energy, media and insurance industries. Every day, we are called on by chief executives, board chairs, general counsel, investors and entrepreneurs for our unmatched trial skills, sophisticated business judgment and renowned strategic advice.
Elyssa Abuhoff and Caroline Williamson Recognized as American Lawyer “Litigators of the Week” for Trump Organization Guilty Verdict
- Awards
- December 12, 2022
Practices
Litigation associates Elyssa Abuhoff and Caroline Williamson, currently seconded to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as special assistant district attorneys, were two of the six-member prosecutorial team named “Litigators of the Week” by The American Lawyer for their work securing a guilty verdict on all 17 counts in the DA’s tax fraud trial against two Trump Organization entities. The verdict marked the first time a jury has convicted former President Donald Trump’s companies of criminal charges.
Prosecutors faced several challenges during the trial, including a nine-day adjournment when a witness tested positive for COVID-19 and the crucial cross-examination of the prosecution’s chief cooperating witness, former CFO Allen Weisselberg, who had admitted to receiving $1.76 million in off-the-books compensation between 2005 and 2017 as part of his plea deal in August. The defense had framed Weisselberg’s fraud as a case of an employee gone rogue, but the prosecution successfully demonstrated that the two Trump Organization entities, Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp., conducted a multi-year tax evasion scheme and cultivated a culture of fraud and deception that included not only Weisselberg, but other senior executives and managers, ultimately benefitting both the executives and the corporations themselves.
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