After receiving his J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, Sussman began his career as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge George M. Marovich before entering private practice with Sidley Austin in 1997. In 1999, he left Sidley to join the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While in that office, he served as Deputy Chief of the Financial Crimes and Special Prosecutions Section. He left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2008 and re-entered private practice. In 2016, Eric was appointed as the First Assistant State’s Attorney by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. As First Assistant, Eric worked with Foxx to implement reforms for the county’s embattled criminal justice system. During his time there, he supervised 800 attorneys and more than 125 investigators in the criminal, appellate, and juvenile justice bureaus, as well as the civil actions bureau. Cook County has the second largest prosecutor’s office in the country behind Los Angeles.

“With an upsurge in the scope and number of white collar criminal investigations and high-level Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) engagements, this area of practice has become increasingly critical for our clients,” said James Sanders, co-chair of the firm’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group. “Eric has significant experience in both public sector and private law practice, as well as both government investigations and white collar defense. He is an incredible asset to our team and we are extremely excited that he has decided to join Reed Smith.”

When in private practice, Sussman handled numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals, and arbitration proceedings before the International Court of Arbitration, and represented clients before various government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In addition, he has directed hundreds of investigations involving the FCPA, insider trading matters, antitrust matters, Dodd-Frank Whistleblower issues and health care fraud allegations.