Shreve Ariail, Former CIA Deputy General Counsel and Section Chief at US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Joins Jenner & Block

Ariail adds to Jenner & Block’s deep bench of former government officials 

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 4, 2021 – Jenner & Block today announced that Shreve Ariail, former Chief of Organized Crime and Gangs for the Eastern District of New York and until recently Deputy General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency, has joined the firm as a partner in Washington, DC. He will serve as a member of the firm’s Investigations, Compliance, and Defense Practice; the Government Controversies and Public Policy Litigation Practice; the recently launched National Security, Sanctions, and Export Controls Practice; and the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice.

Mr. Ariail joins a deep bench of former government officials at Jenner & Block, the seventh former government official to join the firm in 2021, one of 11 former federal prosecutors, and one of dozens of lawyers at the firm with significant experience in public positions. His recent experience will help clients in a variety of industries, including technology, where there have been increases in national security-related investigations.

“Shreve’s unique background and expertise will immediately benefit clients who are facing sensitive national security issues, government investigations, or other multidimensional matters of importance,” said Co-Managing Partners Katya Jestin and Randy Mehrberg. “We are delighted to welcome him to the firm.”
                             
Mr. Ariail most recently served as the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Investigations at the CIA. In that position, he served as counselor and legal advisor to the CIA’s leadership and managed the agency’s response to all executive branch and sensitive congressional investigations. Mr. Ariail also was the head of all litigation at the CIA, supervising the agency’s role in criminal cases brought by the Department of Justice, including in prosecutions for espionage, material support to terrorism, theft of trade secrets, disclosure of classified information, cyber-hacking, fraud, money laundering and violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and various export enforcement and sanctions-related matters. Mr. Ariail also supervised the CIA’s role in affirmative and defensive civil matters, and in matters involving national security regulations. He was the lead lawyer for the CIA’s security and counterintelligence functions, and served as the CIA’s legal representative before the National Security Council on encryption, lawful access, and election security. Alongside his colleagues, Mr. Ariail recently received a Meritorious Unit Citation for his work protecting the 2020 election from foreign interference.

“Shreve has proven to be thoughtful, careful, and strategic over the course of his career in public service,” said David Bitkower, co-chair of the firm’s Investigations, Compliance, and Defense Practice and chair of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice. “He will be a key resource for our clients as they navigate government enforcement and national security concerns and congressional scrutiny.”

Prior to joining the CIA, Mr. Ariail served for a decade as an Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He most recently led the EDNY’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section, where he supervised a unit of over 20 lawyers, investigators, and staff prosecuting violent and corrupt criminal enterprises and business organizations for racketeering, money-laundering, public corruption, narcotics trafficking, violence, bribery, extortion, and fraud. At the EDNY, Mr. Ariail also investigated and prosecuted some of the most complex extraterritorial terrorism cases brought by the Department of Justice in the last decade. Those cases required him to work extensively overseas and to collaborate closely with the US Intelligence Community, the National Security and Criminal Divisions and leadership of the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense and their counterparts abroad.

In his most recent trial, US v. Ibrahim Harun, Mr. Ariail, along with his colleagues, secured the conviction of a senior al-Qaeda terrorist who was convicted for his role in the deaths of two US servicemen in Afghanistan, and in a plot to bomb the US Embassy in Nigeria. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ariail was selected to represent the Department of Justice on President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force. He has received a number of awards for his work as a federal prosecutor, including the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys Director’s Award for Excellence as an Assistant US Attorney and the Federal Drug Agent’s Foundation “True American Hero” Award.

Mr. Ariail is a Faculty Associate with the National Security Policy Center at the University of Virginia. He has lectured at UVA on the role of the federal prosecutor, and on various national security issues, both at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy (Batten) and the School of Law. Mr. Ariail is teaching a course this fall at Batten entitled National Security in the Age of New Technology.

“I am proud to be joining the incredible lawyers at Jenner & Block, and I am looking forward to reuniting with my former colleagues from the Eastern District of New York, Katya Jestin and David Bitkower. I was particularly attracted to the collegial and collaborative culture, and the history of government and other public service by the lawyers at Jenner & Block. I have great respect for the firm’s leadership in its pro bono work.” said Mr. Ariail.

Mr. Ariail earned his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and his BA from Davidson College. He began his career as a law clerk for the Honorable Claude M. Hilton in the Eastern District of Virginia.