Danielle Sassoon, once one of Manhattan’s most prominent federal prosecutors, has found her next chapter — this time, in the private ranks of Paul Clement’s conservative powerhouse firm.
Sassoon stepped down earlier this year after refusing a directive from the Trump administration to abandon corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Her resignation, which rippled through the Justice Department and spurred a wave of departures among her colleagues, framed her as a figure of quiet rebellion within a politically charged legal landscape.
Now, she’s taking that same sense of independence to Clement & Murphy, where she will open and lead the firm’s new Manhattan office. “Paul and Erin have always stood by their principles, even when it cost them,” Sassoon said, describing her decision as a “natural alignment of values.”
Her resignation had come after then–Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove argued that continuing the Adams prosecution would undermine Trump’s immigration agenda. Sassoon fired back in her letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, warning that dropping the case would set a “dangerous precedent” by turning criminal prosecutions into political bargaining chips.
Clement & Murphy — small but strategically influential — has become known for taking high-stakes, ideologically charged cases. Clement himself, a former U.S. solicitor general under George W. Bush, co-founded the firm in 2022 after parting ways with Kirkland & Ellis over its stance on gun rights litigation.
Since then, the firm has found itself at the heart of several major legal battles with the Trump administration — from representing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in a Supreme Court clash over her removal, to defending the Maryland federal judiciary in a dispute over immigration-related court orders. Its client roster reads like a cross-section of corporate America, with names like Chevron, Tesla, Sony Music, and Regeneron.
Clement’s connection to the Adams saga runs deep. Appointed by a federal judge to assess whether the corruption charges should be dismissed, he ultimately recommended that they be dropped — warning that renewed prosecution could blur the line between justice and political loyalty.
Judge Dale Ho followed that advice in April, though his ruling noted the uncomfortable truth: the administration’s justification “smacks of a bargain.”
Adams, who pleaded not guilty to bribery and campaign finance violations tied to Turkish donors, has since returned to governing — while Sassoon reemerges in private practice, bringing with her the rare air of a prosecutor who said “no” when it mattered most.
