Practice/Organization Description
A partner in Dorsey’s New York Office, Nick Akerman is a trial lawyer specializing in both complex civil and criminal cases. He has a well-established expertise on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute (RICO), securities fraud, state and federal trade secret laws and post employment restrictive covenants.
Prior to private practice Nick served as a federal prosecutor. He was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted a wide array of white collar criminal matters, including bank frauds, bankruptcy frauds, stock frauds, complex financial frauds, environmental and tax crimes. Nick was also an Assistant Special Watergate Prosecutor with the Watergate Special Prosecution Force under Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski.
He is a nationally recognized expert on computer crime and the protection of competitively sensitive information and computer data. Nick regularly obtains injunctions for his clients under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in various federal courts around the country requiring computer thieves to return stolen computer data and prohibiting the dissemination of the data to competitors. He also consults with clients in developing systems, policies and protocols to protect computer data.
Nick speaks and writes regularly on protecting computer data, including in his regular computer data column for the National Law Journal. He has been a featured quoted expert on computer fraud and computer security issues in the New York Times, USA Today, the San Jose Mercury News, the Boston Globe, the St. Louis Dispatch, the Sacramento Bee, Forbes, ComputerWorld, CFO Magazine, CNET, CNET Japan, ZDNet, MSN, Internet Week and the Weekly Homeland Security Newsletter. His blog can be found at http://computerfraud.us.
Set forth below is a representative sampling of the types of cases he has handled:
Represented Lockheed Martin Corp. in a trade secrets and computer fraud case in Lockheed Martin v, L-3 Communications, Inc., 6:05 CV 1580 ORL 31KRS
Represented Lockheed Martin Corp. on RICO claims in Lockheed Martin v. The Boeing Company, 6:03CV 796 ORL 28 KRS
$1 million jury verdict in a RICO, libel and slander case affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Securitron Magnalock v. Schnabolk, 65 F.3d 256 (2d Cir. 1995)
Libel defense for media publications. Stover v. Journal Pub. Co., 105 N.M. 291, 731 P.2d 1335 (N.M. App. 1985)
Whistleblower cases. Rodgers v. Lenox Hill Hosp., 251 A.D.2d 244, 674 N.Y.S.2d 670 (N.Y.A.D. 1st Dep’t 1998)
Contract disputes. Carte Blanche (Singapore PTE., Ltd.) v. Diners Club Intern., Inc., 758 F. Supp. 908 (S.D.N.Y. 1991)
Insurance coverage disputes. See e.g. Journal Pub. Co. v. American Home Assur. Co., 771 F. Supp. 632 (S.D.N.Y. 1991)
Defamation. See e.g. Criales v. American Airlines, Inc., 1999 WL 1487601 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 28, 1999)
Over 15 injunctions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act including the first case relating to the entry of a company database through a public Web site using the company’s confidential and proprietary information. EF Cultural Travel BV v. Explorica, Inc., 274 F.3d 577(1st Cir. 2001)
Injunctions enforcing covenants not to compete. Garber Bros., Inc. v. Evlek 122 F.Supp.2d 375 (E.D.N.Y. 2000)
White Collar Representations
Nick has represented numerous corporations and individuals under criminal investigation by the United State Department of Justice for complex commercial and tax crimes and has defended numerous criminal cases in federal court including the acquittal of all defendants by a jury in United States v. Stella,1990 WL 128918 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 27, 1990).
Professional Associations & Memberships
Professional Activities:
Testified Before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Organized Crime
Faculty Member of the Practicing Law Institute on Personal Liability for Environmental Violations (1991)
Presentations:
February 2009 Dorsey Symposium for Corporate Leaders - Securing Electronic Business Information: Do You Know What You May Be Missing?
March 2008 Directors Round Table - Corporate Digital Assets: Protecting the Secrets of Success
February 2008 - Current Issues in White Collar Litigation
Association of Corporate Counsel
June 2007 - Annual Meeting and Ethics Marathon
October 2007 - Protecting Your Corporate Data: Using Self-Help and Taking Protective Measures
December 2005 - Ethics Marathon
November 2005 - Corporate Counsel Community Forum
Referenced in Popular Books:
Master of the Game, Connie Bruck
The Right and the Power, Leon Jaworski
Secrets, A memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg
Sinatra, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
Vengeance Is Mine, Muchael Zuckerman
