BlackBerry's New Lawyer Is Getting Busy

A man tries a Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry 10 smartphone prototype at the BlackBerry Jam Asia developer conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

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By Hugo Miller

June 7, 2013 at 10:07 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Steve Zipperstein prosecuted failed savings-and-loan associations in the 1980s and investigated the government's siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in the '90s. Now the battle-hardened lawyer has joined Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry to fight its critics.

Zipperstein, who turns 54 this month, was lured out of retirement in Santa Barbara, California, last year by an offer to become BlackBerry's chief legal officer. He joined the Waterloo, Ontario-based company in July to handle everything from patent disputes to privacy issues, and says his time as a Justice Department lawyer and federal prosecutor in Los Angeles will serve him well in defending BlackBerry's interests.