John Spagna is a regulatory enforcement and litigation attorney with extensive government, in-house, and private practice experience that lets him handle a wide variety of matters for his clients. He represents companies, financial institutions, and individuals under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and in enforcement matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, federal and state bank regulators, state attorneys general, and self-regulatory organizations. His work spans cross-border litigation, white-collar defense cases, and internal investigations, which he has handled as both external and in-house counsel, along with commercial disputes and class action litigation.

Among his internal investigations, John has managed several matters involving the handling of material non-public information and allegations of insider trading. He has also worked with graduate and undergraduate students from several Ivy League universities and other prestigious institutions on a range of disciplinary issues and hearings, including allegations related to Title IX violations, cheating, and discriminatory grading practices.

John also maintains an active family law practice, handling some of the most complex and contentious custody matters throughout New York. Drawing on his extensive courtroom experience, he often represents clients who were denied custody of their children because of false allegations made by opposing parties.

Before joining Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder LLP, John spent nearly a decade in “Big Law” at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP and Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP. He left his role at a large firm because its billing system was too inflexible, and his hourly rates there did not allow him to take the cases about which he was most passionate.

As Special Counsel to the Criminal Division of the New York State Attorney General’s Office, John led groundbreaking and novel prosecutions in the real estate industry. As a result, he was appointed to lead the Real Estate Enforcement Unit, which focused on complaints involving bank fraud, deceptive lending practices, deed theft, tenant harassment, and frauds committed upon city and state agencies. He also helped draft the recent changes to New York’s Harassment of Rent Regulated Tenants statute.

Earlier in his career, John served as a prosecutor at the New York County District Attorney’s Office, first as a line assistant in the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor and then as a member of the elite Rackets Bureau. There he supervised teams of attorneys, investigators, and paralegals in white-collar and organized crime investigations involving fraud, racketeering, official corruption, money laundering, bribery, and homicide. He prosecuted over 200 felony cases and conducted 12 felony trials and over 50 hearings in New York Supreme Court.

John is a volunteer firefighter in Hastings-on-Hudson.

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