Sean F. O’Shea, Chair of Cadwalader's Trial Practice Group, is a highly experienced, aggressive trial lawyer who focuses on complex business and white collar litigation. O’Shea has represented clients ranging from large corporations, to prominent private equity and hedge funds, to senior executives at major corporations. He has tried more than 87 cases to verdict, including federal and state jury and bench trials, arbitrations and administrative proceedings. O’Shea is particularly known as an expert cross-examiner whose cross-examinations have altered the course of trials. O’Shea has extensive experience with the RICO statute in civil cases having both successfully brought RICO actions and defended them on behalf of numerous corporate entities.
Recently, O’Shea won a resounding trial victory in the Southern District of Texas. Faced with the total decimation of its direct case through witness cross-examination, McKinsey & Co, Inc was forced to withdraw its case before O’Shea offered any affirmative witnesses. Listen to the presiding judge after accepting McKinsey’s withdrawal and calling O’Shea “one of the best trial lawyers I have ever seen.”
O’Shea is a former chief of the Business/Securities Fraud section of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. During his decade-long tenure as a federal prosecutor, O’Shea tried more than 35 jury trials to verdict and appeared as lead appellate counsel for the Department of Justice in dozens of appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
O’Shea has received numerous awards and commendations from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies for his work in significant white collar crime matters. He has been a featured speaker on many occasions before federal law enforcement groups, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Postal Inspection Service.
Lawdragon Honors
O’Shea also served as an instructor in trial tactics and courtroom procedures classes at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy at Quantico, Virginia. Upon his departure from the United States Attorney's Office to return to private practice, FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote that O’Shea's "efforts as a prosecutor, as well as an investigator, were keys to the success of our White Collar Crime Program." He was also commended by Assistant Director of the FBI James Kallstrom for his work in a case against United States Aviation Underwriters. Kallstrom described O’Shea as being the "architect of the investigation and the prosecution presenting unique legal issues and facts [flowing out of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing investigation]."
O’Shea is committed to pro bono work and community service. He serves on the board of trustees of Cristo Rey School in Harlem and is past chair of the board of trustees of the Mashomack Nature Preserve, which is a Nature Conservancy property. O’Shea currently serves as an Advisor to the Indian River Land Trust in Vero Beach Florida. O’Shea is also an active supporter of the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
O’Shea received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was Notes and Comments Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review and a recipient of the Adlai Stevenson Award for writing the best appellate brief in the Julius Miner Moot Court Competition. He received his B.A. from the University of Illinois.
