Howard also advises the firm on major strategic initiatives. He has led investigations for cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the Unsecured Creditors Committee of Purdue Pharma, and the unsecured creditors of Infowars creator Alex Jones, as well as other significant matters for corporate and individual clients in criminal, litigation, and bankruptcy proceedings.
Clients quoted in Chambers say that “Howard Master is phenomenal, he has a really incredible sense of attention to detail” and “Howard is a brilliant lawyer and investigator and is really expert in unpacking complicated situations, such as tracing difficult money trails.” Reviewers further comment that “Howard is one of the brightest people I have ever worked with. He knows how to analyze a problem and construct a solution” and “his judgement, intellect and ability to speak to or interface with clients and opposing counsel is incredible.” Another says “Howard Master is a go-to. He is extremely reliable and able to get things done” and finally, “Howard Master is a brilliant attorney and investigator. He helps not with the investigation, but with articulating the goals and best methods to get there. He is simultaneously a strategist and someone who is in the weeds of an investigation.”
Howard joined Nardello & Co. after an acclaimed career as a leader, investigator, and trial lawyer in federal, state, and local prosecutors’ offices. At the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he served as a white collar crime prosecutor and later as deputy chief of the criminal division and criminal health care fraud coordinator, Howard investigated and prosecuted individual and corporate wrongdoers responsible for major corruption scandals and financial crimes, including those involved in the largest fraud, kickback, and money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against New York City; Sheldon Silver, the longtime leader of the New York State Legislature, who received millions of dollars in bribes; and corporate executives at a major pharmaceutical company who carried out a $10 million kickback and money laundering scheme. Howard later served as senior enforcement counsel to the New York State Attorney General, where he led investigations into workplace misconduct at The Weinstein Company, wrongdoing by opioid manufacturers and distributors, and other significant matters. Subsequently, Howard became special counsel to the district attorney of Suffolk County, New York, where he supervised all corruption, fraud, and money laundering investigations and created the office’s hate crime and wrongful conviction review units.
Since 2016, Howard has been an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he teaches an advanced seminar on corruption law. He has spoken and written frequently on investigation- and corruption-related topics. He also serves as a commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption and supports the East West Management Institute’s Advancing Comprehensive Reforms in Armenia program, where he has led a training seminar on public corruption attended by senior Armenian judges, prosecutors, and investigators.
Howard is a graduate of Yale University and the New York University School of Law, and a former law clerk to the Hon. José A. Cabranes of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Hon. Victor Marrero of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
