Adam S. Fels is a founding partner of Fridman Fels & Soto, PLLC. His practice focuses on international money laundering cases, white-collar criminal defense, and complex internal investigations.

Before forming Fridman Fels & Soto, PLLC, Mr. Fels served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida for thirteen years, specializing in international money laundering, counternarcotics, and counterterrorism prosecutions. He also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Fels was one of the lead prosecutors and delivered the opening statement in the Government’s successful prosecution of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, one of the largest drug kingpins ever tried in the United States. The members of the prosecution team, including Mr. Fels, were honored with the 2019 U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department’s highest award for employee performance.

Throughout his thirteen-year career as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Fels successfully managed and directed a wide array of criminal investigations and cases in district court, and successfully argued several cases in federal courts of appeal. He handled some of the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office’s highest-profile cases, including a variety of counterterrorism prosecutions, and the prosecution of some of the most prominent Colombian drug cartel leaders of the time.

He has developed expertise in several areas of federal criminal practice, including Title III wiretaps, classified information litigation, money laundering, other financial investigations, mortgage fraud, and customs enforcement. He was cleared for top secret information and granted access to sensitive compartmented information.

Mr. Fels has lectured extensively to various audiences, including domestic and foreign law enforcement personnel and university students. His seminars and guest lectures have addressed international criminal procedure, money laundering, terrorist financing, and psychology of the courtroom. He has participated in state-sponsored money laundering panels on three continents.

Prior to his tenure as a federal prosecutor in Miami, Mr. Fels served as a Senior Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations in Washington, DC, where he worked to denaturalize and deport several World War II concentration camp guards who had unlawfully entered the United States after the war. For his role in bringing Nazi camp guards to justice, Mr. Fels was recognized alongside other OSI attorneys with the first U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Award for Human Rights Law Enforcement.

Before joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Fels spent four years as a commercial litigation and appellate associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP, participating in several trials and developing expertise in internal investigations. Mr. Fels began his legal career by clerking for United States District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks in the Southern District of Florida.