Honorable Steven S. Honigman
Primary Areas of Legal Practice:
Commercial, Securities and Class Action Litigation
Government Affairs and Public Policy
Executive and Legislative Branch Strategies and Advocacy
Government Contracts and Disputes
Nuclear Energy
International Business and Financial Institution Engagements
Professional Experience:
Mr. Honigman’s legal career has included the private practice of law with leading commercial law firms and extensive public service. Appointed by President Clinton and confirmed in office by the Senate, he served for five years as General Counsel of the Navy.
Mr. Honigman became a partner of Fox Horan & Camerini LLP on January 1, 2006.
Mr. Honigman was a partner/of counsel with Thelen Reid & Priest LLP from 1998 through 2005.
Since completing his service as General Counsel of the Navy in 1998, Mr. Honigman has provided expertise on a wide range of matters including commercial, securities and class action litigation; alternative dispute resolution; government contracts, claims and investigations; federal responsible contractor and national industrial security requirements; foreign military sales and offset programs; executive and legislative branch strategies and advocacy; and nuclear energy facilities, company development and public policy.
Through Fox Horan & Camerini LLP, Mr. Honigman serves as General Counsel of Harbor Wing Technologies, Inc. Harbor Wing has designed and is developing a new-technology wind-powered autonomous unmanned surface vessel (AUSV) for Navy, homeland security, environmental, law enforcement, commercial and recreational missions and applications.
Mr. Honigman served as a lead counsel in Cromer Finance, Ltd., et al. v. Berger, et al., No. 00 Civ. 2284 (DLC), a federal securities law class action in which his firm recovered $64 million on behalf of defrauded investors in an offshore hedge fund from the fund's auditors and administrators. In connection with its award of attorneys' fees in that action, the Court noted that Mr. Honigman’s litigation team had “given the class excellent representation in this hard-fought case. Their submissions to this Court have been of great assistance on complex issues of first impression.” Those issues included the extraterritorial application of United States securities laws to an offshore hedge fund’s non-United States auditors and administrators; the availability to investors in an offshore hedge fund of a presumption of reliance upon the fund’s statements of net asset value and audits; and principles of proportionate liability under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, the PSLRA. In addition to securing the terms and conditions required for a favorable settlement of the claims of the class, Mr. Honigman conducted multi-party negotiations with a Chapter 11 Trustee in Bankruptcy and Bermuda/British Virgin Islands Joint Liquidators which established Court-approved principles and procedures for apportioning and distributing the settlement proceeds in the context of the hedge fund’s cross-border insolvency and liquidation proceedings.
Other significant matters for which Mr. Honigman has recently been responsible include:
* Service as a neutral arbitrator in dispute involving responsibility for radiological cleanup of a nuclear services facility.
* Representation of a homeland security risk assessment/vulnerability analysis provider in the formation of a joint venture to provide all-hazards security architecture and processes to an inland inter-modal container port and service as chairman of the joint venture company.
* Representation of subcontractor in arbitration of construction claims regarding Department of Justice training facility.
* Representation of class of black FBI agents in mediation regarding compliance with remedial provisions of settlement of employment discrimination claims.
* Advice and representation for businesses regarding Defense Department contract proposals, negotiations and appropriations; compliance with requirements of the National Industrial Security Program and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States; and suspension and debarment investigations, proceedings and ethics compliance agreements.
* Advice to business regarding participation in the Defense Department Utilities Privatization Program and possible securitization of government contract income streams under United States and international accounting standards.
* Advice and representation for business seeking legislative amendments to authorize new financial services for retired military members.
* Strategic development of business, financial and public policy plan and advocacy before senior Department of Energy leadership for new business seeking to acquire and operate nuclear reactor to produce medical isotopes and support cancer-cure facilities.
* Advice and representation for United States manufacturer of military transport helicopters regarding participation in Nordic Helicopter Competition, preparation of proposed offset program to satisfy Nordic offset requirements and advocacy before senior representatives of the Defense Ministry of Finland.
* Representation of the National Technology Agency of Finland in negotiation of technology transfer and cooperation agreement with University of California at Berkeley.
* Advice to Finnish reinsurance company regarding United States operations.
* Advice and representation for leading Swiss bank regarding United States custodial and insurance business issues and securities litigation.
* Advice and litigation for investors in hedge funds regarding enforcement of provisions of placement memoranda and fraud.
* Legal review of Central Intelligence Agency In-Q-Tel business model for accelerated CIA technology acquisition on behalf of Business Executives for National Security In-Q-Tel Assessment and Report.
* Representation of scrap metal dealers in challenge to Westchester County regulatory regime.
* Representation of New York and New Jersey black car and limousine owners associations in constitutional challenge to New Jersey sales tax on transportation services.
As a Presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Honigman served as the General Counsel of the Navy from June 1993 to April 1998. Ranking as the third-highest civilian in the Department of the Navy, he was the Department's Chief Legal Officer and the principal legal advisor to the Secretary of the Navy. He also led the 650-lawyer world-wide Office of the General Counsel, whose civilian attorneys are responsible for acquisition matters, environmental law, litigation, civilian employment law, intellectual property law and standards of conduct. As General Counsel, Mr. Honigman exercised Secretariat oversight of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and served as the Department's Contractor Suspension and Debarment Official and Designated Agency Ethics Officer.
Mr. Honigman received the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award and was recognized as a leader in acquisition reform, procurement-related litigation and the accomplishment of national security objectives in the context of environmental law compliance. He ensured the ability of the Navy's fleet of nuclear-powered warships to perform their military missions through an agreement with the State of Idaho for the continued inspection and storage of naval spent nuclear fuel; led Navy Department litigations regarding transportation, disposal and environment impact of nuclear fuel and other materials; provided legal and diplomatic support for foreign military sales programs involving Finland’s F-18 Hornet aircraft; led Navy Department defense of the A-12 aircraft claims litigation; participated in significant ship-building, aircraft and significant weapons-system acquisition strategies, program decision-making and execution, and claims resolution; represented the Department of the Navy in testimony before committees of Congress; and participated in policy development and public outreach. Throughout his tenure, he represented the Department of the Navy's interests in matters and disputes with the Office of the President; other federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Energy and State, NOAA, EPA, MARAD and FBI/CIA; Congress; federal courts; and state, local and tribal governments.
Prior to his service as General Counsel of the Navy, Mr. Honigman was a partner in Miller, Singer, Raives & Brandes, P.C., a New York City law firm, where he specialized in international and domestic reinsurance and insurance disputes, transactions and insolvencies; land-use, development and exclusionary zoning litigation and advice; commercial and construction litigation; and appeals concerning interests of older Americans. He was appointed by a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court to a Subcommittee to Formulate a Plan of Action for New York Insurance Exchange Insolvent Syndicates, and by the Secretary of Defense as a public member of the Military Justice Act of 1983 Advisory Commission. He has chaired committees of the American Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He served as law clerk to the Honorable Jacob Mishler, then Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and on active duty with the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, from whom he received the Navy Achievement Medal. He was an associate attorney with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP.
Education:
Yale Law School (J.D., 1972)
New York University (B.A., 1969)
Professional Affiliations:
Board of Directors (Chair, Business Ethics Committee, and Member, Executive Compensation Committee) of DRS Technologies, Inc., a high-technology company serving government, defense intelligence and commercial markets with mission critical systems components and services
Board of Directors of the former Wornick Company, a leading supplier of combat and humanitarian rations to the United States Department of Defense (through date of acquisition by private equity fund in 2003)
Board of Directors of EWA Information and Infrastructure Technologies, Inc., a provider of risk management and information security solutions to federal government and private industry customers
Advisory Board of Harbor Wing Technologies, Inc., a developer of autonomous unmanned surface vehicles for military, homeland security and commercial missions and applications
Fellow, The CNA Corporation/Center For Naval Analysis, 1998-2000
Business Executives for National Security
Finnish-American Chamber of Commerce
United States Naval Institute
American Bar Foundation Fellow
Executive Committee, Yale Law School Association
Advisory Board, Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square (USS IOWA, BB-61)
Board of Directors of the Times Square Group, a not-for-profit organization involving high school students in the creation of theatre, TV, film and music programs, 2003-2005
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