Jenner & Block Lands Ex-CIA Lawyer, Organized Crime Prosecutor

Jenner & Block has landed Shreve Ariail, a former Central Intelligence Agency deputy general counsel and federal organized crime and gangs prosecutor, the firm said Monday.

Ariail joins Jenner as a partner in Washington in several firm practices. He is the seventh former government official to join the firm so far this year, and is one of 11 former federal prosecutors at the firm.

Ariail will advise clients in industries such as technology, which has seen a rising number of national security and other 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, in a statement.

Ariail said in an interview that he expects to “be handling white-collar investigations and most with a national security angle.” That could include foreign investment matters that come before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, called CFIUS, at the Treasury Department.

While he was at the CIA, which he joined in May 2018, Ariail was the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Investigations. He advised agency leadership and managed its response to executive branch and sensitive congressional investigations.

Ariail headed all agency litigation, supervising its role in criminal cases brought by the Justice Department. Those cases included prosecutions for espionage, material support to terrorism, theft of trade secrets, disclosure of classified information, cyber-hacking, fraud and money laundering, among other matters.

“Shreve has proven to be thoughtful, careful, and strategic over the course of his career in public service,” said David Bitkower, chair of Jenner & Block’s Investigations, Compliance and Defense Practice and chair of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice, in a statement.

“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, Ariail spent a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. While leading the Organized Crime and Gangs Section, he supervised a unit of more than 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.

He also investigated and prosecuted terrorism cases brought by the Justice Department. They included U.S. v. Ibrahim Harun, where Ariail and his colleagues won the 2017 conviction of a senior al-Qaeda terrorist for his role in the deaths of two U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan, and in a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.