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Meet the lawyer who went from standing up to Eric Schneiderman and Andrew Cuomo to defending Leon Black

May 24, 2022, 20:25 IST
Business Insider
Patrick McMullan/Karwai Tang/Keith Levit/Pool/Platt/Getty Images; Lucy Nicholson/Reuters; Rachel Mendelson/Insider

Danya Perry, a former federal prosecutor-turned-corporate lawyer, has a hard-earned reputation for calling out abuse and standing up to powerful men.

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In 2018, she told a New Yorker journalist that Eric Schneiderman physically assaulted her two years earlier after a summer party in the Hamptons, an allegation the magazine described in a story that facilitated the attorney general's downfall.

This past August, when Andrew Cuomo faced allegations of sexual harassment, Perry also told the magazine that the then-governor once stymied her professionally by quashing an investigation into political corruption when it got too close to his allies. (Schneiderman could not be reached for comment for this story. A spokesperson for Cuomo said the former governor denied allegations of sexual harassment and that Cuomo did not face any criminal charges for allegations relating to his work with Perry.)

But as the Cuomo drama unfolded, she had quietly taken on a new client: the billionaire investor Leon Black.

He was the very kind of power figure Perry had once made a name for herself by challenging — and he was going through a #MeToo crisis of his own. The former Apollo Global Management CEO's former longtime lover, Guzel Ganieva, filed a civil lawsuit last year accusing him of forcing "sadistic sexual acts" on her during their extramarital affair in the late 2000s and 2010s. Black has called the allegations a "wholesale fiction" and filed his own lawsuit against Ganieva.

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To some lawyers, Perry's decision to defend Black — who resigned from Apollo after an investigation found he had paid $158 million to Epstein for tax and financial advice — doesn't match the Perry they've read about in The New Yorker.

Perry told Insider she was persuaded to take the case after reviewing audio recordings and text conversations Black had with Ganieva — and speaking at length with Black.

"Like so many others, I have myself endured sexual assault and harassment, and I do anything in my power to fight against it," Perry told Insider in emailed comments. "But I will stand up against someone who is hijacking it and weaponizing it by falsely claiming sexual assault. That hurts the movement and hurts us all."

SUBSCRIBERS CAN READ THE FULL STORY HERE: How a #MeToo supporter who confronted Eric Schneiderman and Andrew Cuomo came to defend Leon Black

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