Partner pay watch: Pillsbury’s Lapointe, picked for Miami U.S. attorney

(Reuters) – The lawyer picked to lead the federal prosecutor’s office overseeing the Mar-a-Lago investigation reported earning $905,000 as a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman since January 2021, according to an ethics disclosure released on Friday as part of his nomination.

Markenzy Lapointe, a former prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida U.S. attorney’s office, joined Pillsbury Winthrop in 2017 from law firm Boies Schiller Flexner.

Lapointe, who is Haitian-American, would be the first Black attorney to serve at the top of the Miami-based federal prosecutor’s office in south Florida, Democratic U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson said in a June op-ed that called for his nomination. President Joe Biden last month announced Lapointe’s nomination.

He has advised corporate clients including Fujifilm Holdings America Corp, Truist Financial Corp and Qatar International Bank, according to his financial disclosure.

Financial ethics filings are mandatory for many senior-level executive branch officials, and they can provide a window into compensation at some of the country’s largest law firms. They record income received from the prior year up to the date of the filing.

The disclosures also provide an ethics roadmap, since a new U.S. government lawyer is barred from immediately touching matters involving former clients.

Lapointe did not immediately respond to a message on Friday seeking comment.

Pillsbury last year saw an uptick in profits per equity partner to $2.1 million, and revenue per lawyer at the roughly 650-attorney firm climbed to $1.2 million, industry publication The American Lawyer reported in April. U.S. attorneys can make up to about $176,000 annually.

The Southern District of Florida prosecutor’s office handles investigations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and other cities. Lapointe would oversee an office of about 245 federal prosecutors.

He would succeed career prosecutor Juan Antonio Gonzalez, who was appointed as the U.S. attorney by Attorney General Merrick Garland in October 2021. Gonzalez, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida since 1998, declined to comment on Friday.

Gonzalez has played a central role in recent months in the ongoing investigation of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of presidential records taken from the White House and stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

The Trump-era Miami U.S. attorney was Ariana Fajardo Orshan, the first Senate-confirmed woman to lead the office. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her last year to serve as a state judge in Miami. The Obama-era Miami U.S. attorney, Wifredo Ferrer, now is a partner at Holland & Knight.

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