Choate, Hall & Stewart

Adam Bookbinder, co-chair of Choate’s Government Enforcement & Compliance Group, is an experienced trial attorney and former Assistant U.S. Attorney who helps clients effectively address and mitigate a wide range of high-level enterprise risks. Having tried more than 25 jury trials to verdict, he is equally comfortable litigating in federal and state court, guiding clients through government investigations, and advising on cybersecurity, data privacy, and cyber incident response.

In white collar defense and internal and government investigations, Adam represents institutional clients, charged defendants, potential criminal targets, and witnesses in federal and state investigations and prosecutions around the country. He represents corporations and individuals in wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, healthcare, computer network intrusion, environmental crime, and criminal tax prosecutions and investigations. He has also briefed and argued dozens of appeals in state and federal courts of appeal.

Adam advises clients on a wide range of cybersecurity and data privacy issues. He counsels clients on responding to cybersecurity incidents, conducting internal investigations and cybersecurity reviews, preparing incident response plans, complying with U.S. data privacy laws and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), interfacing with law enforcement agencies, and increasing preparedness to address national security cyber issues. He also defends clients in class action data privacy and data misuse litigation.

Adam served 18 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. He was chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Cybercrime Unit, where he supervised a unit responsible for the investigation and prosecution of computer and intellectual property crime, including computer intrusions, data breaches, network attacks, theft of trade secrets, copyright and trademark infringement, and online fraud. In this role, Adam worked with the FBI, Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify and respond to priority cybercrime threats. He was also chosen as the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s National Security Cyber Specialist, investigating cybercrime committed by nation-states and hackers affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, and serving as the U.S. Attorney’s Office liaison to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division for cyber matters.

Adam also served in the office’s Economic Crimes Unit, and he led financial fraud, securities fraud and healthcare fraud investigations, prosecutions, and trials throughout his tenure in the office. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Adam was an Assistant District Attorney in the Essex County District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts and a law clerk for the Honorable Stephen Trott, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Adam’s clients include Partners Healthcare, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Charles River Laboratories, and Leap Therapeutics.

Harvard Law School JD, cum laude Dartmouth College BA,  magna cum laude