Co-Founder of the law firm Perry Guha LLP, Attorney

Danya Perry | Biography

In 2013, Perry was elected as the Deputy Attorney General for the State of New York and Chief of Investigations for the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.

• By Ashna Tamrakar
• Update : December 16, 2021

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Danya Perry is a co-founder of Perry Guha LLP, a law firm concentrating on civil and criminal trial practice and white-collar investigations.

Who Is Danya Perry?

Danya Perry is a former American attorney and founding partner of Perry Guha LLP alongside courtroom advocate Samidh Guha. The litigation boutique, established in 2019, concentrates on civil and criminal trial practice and white-collar investigations. She also serves as the trustee of the US-based non-profit research and policy group, Vera Institute of Justice, and the director of a non-profit organization named NYC Kids Rise.

Earlier, Perry worked at MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated for five years as the Chief of Litigation and Deputy General Counsel. She also served for the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption as the state's deputy attorney general and chief of investigations.

Perry is also a sub-3-hour marathoner.

Education 

Elizabeth Danya Perry graduated was born on 8 July 1971 in Manhattan, New York. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Arts from Harvard College in 1993 with Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. She also earned a 'Charles H. Eliot Prize for Outstanding Senior Thesis,' 'History and Literature Award for Distinction in Major,' and Agassiz Scholarship for Academic Achievement of the Highest Distinction. She was also a John Harvard Scholar at the university.

Perry earned her Juris Doctor (JD) from Yale Law School in New Haven in 1996. At Yale, she served both full-time and part-time in the US Attorney's Office.

Career

From April 2002 to April 2013, Perry worked as an Assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York for eleven years. Perry had also held various positions in the office, including senior trial counsel and deputy chief of the criminal division. As an assistant US attorney, Perry handled, examined, prosecuted, and monitored hundreds of white-collar cases such as the largest immigration fraud, the court proceedings of billion-dollar healthcare fraud, and tax preparer frauds in US history, the country's one of the biggest identity theft rings.

Between 2012 and 2013, she served as an adjunct lecturer and taught a trial advocacy and prosecution clinic at the New York University School of Law for one year. During the initial days of her legal career, she worked as a clerk for a federal district judge in the Southern District of New York and also worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. 

The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption

In 2013, Perry was elected Deputy Attorney General for the State of New York and Chief of Investigations for the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption by the Governor and Attorney General. She oversaw a broad investigation of public corruption in New York State, made policy recommendations for systemic improvement, and submitted several cases to the criminal justice system.

MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated

In March 2014, she was appointed as the Chief of Litigation and Deputy General Counsel at MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, New York. In this position, Perry was responsible for all elements of the company's commercial litigation, enforcement, and legal constraints. It included contracts, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, customer fraud, intellectual property, and employment law. 

Perry was also in charge of developing, integrating, and upholding compliance programs across the corporation and its operating companies. She also provided legal and business advice to the top-level management on business risks and corporate governance. 

Perry served as the head managing in-house teams and outside legal professionals during the court trials. She quit the job in October 2019 after five and a half years. 

Co-Founder of Perry Guha LLP

Perry is the co-founder and partner at Perry Guha LLP alongside courtroom advocate Samidh Guha. Perry Guha LLP is a minority and woman-owned litigation boutique founded in October 2019, concentrating on civil and criminal trial practice and white-collar investigations. 

Since its establishment, Perry has prosecuted corporations and individuals in criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits. She has also represented the grand jury and regulatory investigations by numerous federal and provincial government agencies and departments. 

Perry's criminal defense experience involves managing individuals accused of crimes such as fraud, bribery, kidnapping, money laundering, sanctions breaches, and corruption, among other offenses. Similarly, she also works as an attorney for clients who have been victims of sexual abuse, discrimination, bigotry, or harassment. To date, Perry represents several sexual assault survivors in a civil lawsuit against a large public institution in the United States. 

Television and Newspapers

Perry regularly appears on the nation's top networks, such as CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC. She talks on the topics of white-collar and enforcement panels. 

She has also authored editorials for publications like Washington Post, New York Times, New York Daily News, CNN, and Law360.

Michael Avenatti Case

Michael Avenatti, an American former attorney was sentenced to 30 months in jail in July 2021 after pleading for mercy in a weeping plea to extort Nike Inc. He first gained headlines for representing an adult-film actress who alleged an affair with Donald Trump before he became president.

In February 2020, he was convicted of fraud and attempted extortion to shake down Nike for up to $25 million during what he said was a negotiation for his client, a youth basketball coach. A jury determined he threatened to reveal suspected misconduct within the corporation if it did not match his settlement demands.

Perry co-represented his case and proposed a six-month sentence while prosecutors demanded a prison term of over ten years. “He lost his way and he knows it. He’s a completely humbled man who’s been beaten down. . . . He’s had an epic fall and he’s been publicly shamed,” his defense lawyer Perry said.

Husband

Perry married an investment banker, Mark Steven Hootnick, in 2004. The couple got married at the St. Thomas Synagogue in Charlotte Amalie, V.I. They share three young children. However, her Instagram bio now states that she is a single mother of three.