Resume
Philly DA’s Office, 1995-2000
Aramark, 2005-2009 – Aramark is a corporation providing food, uniforms, and facilities to various entities, including prisons and ICE detention centers.
Philadelphia Board of Ethics, 2006-2009
Philadelphia Managing Director, 2010-2016
Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, 2016 – Present
Notable Events and Controversies
Richard Negrin was 13 when his father was murdered in front of him.
In 2000, working in Lynn Abraham’s DA office, Negrin signed the warrant leading to the mass arrest of activists planning protests against the Republican National Convention. He asserted police found probable cause of intent to commit crimes. Some defendants were held on bail of up to $1 million. Judges tossed the majority of the cases due to lack of evidence.
Negrin worked for corporate law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP for a spell. That law firm was in the news recently for advising Donald Trump not to fully divest from his business empire.
He then worked at Aramark, which profits from prisons, serving 380 million meals to correctional facilities each year. It benefits from using prisoner slave labor. It has lost contracts and paid fines due to shortages and low standards in prison food, including maggots and rodents. The corporation has been picketed for racial bias in its hiring practices.
Negrin negotiated with Occupy Philly as managing director, communicating support for free speech in its early days. Negrin later said the protest was not working well with the city. DA candidate Larry Krasner has criticized Negrin over Occupy arrests.
Negrin currently works for law firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP. In September 2016, while he was employed there, the firm represented casino owners who won a case in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that struck down slot machine taxes in Bensalem and Chester County. Slot machine revenues account for over 20 percent of those municipalities’ budgets. Communities including Bethlehem and Philadelphia could lose $140 million a year collectively.
Negrin has voiced opposition to reopening the investigation of the police shooting of Brandon Tate-Brown, saying it would “set a dangerous precedent.”
In 2013, Negrin recounted a story about Kensington, saying about a drug dealer, “We’re going to look into things like civil forfeiture. We’re going to prove a case against that woman … We’re not only going to lock her up, we’re going to take her home.”
Endorsements and Donors
Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 5
Negrin received $5,000 from the FOP. FOP Lodge 5 president McNesby met with Donald Trump in March 2017. Following the national FOP’s lead, the local chapter endorsed Trump for President. McNesby criticized Hillary Clinton for inviting the mothers of Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner speak at the DNC. The FOP has a long history of defending killer cops and is a major roadblock to police and prison reform.
Other endorsements include the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board, which does not have McNesby’s support; the Guardian Civic League; the National Black Police Officers Association; and Eddie Lopez, president of SALEA (Spanish American Law Enforcement Association) and vice president of the National Coalition of Latino Officers.
Key Donors
Negrin has accepted donations from a number of current and former Aramark executives, including $15,000 total from former Aramark chairman and CEO Joseph Neubauer and his wife, Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer. Other donations include $9,000 from John Dodds, a Morgan Lewis partner who has represented pharmaceutical companies and financial services companies; $9,000 from Richard Glazer, the founder of Cozen O’Connor and chief of the Innocence Project; and $250 from Heather Podesta, a powerful Democratic lobbyist.
He also received $4,000 from Exelon PAC, which regularly contributes to both parties but leans Republican; $2,500 from William Hankowsky, the president and CEO of Liberty Property Trust, which spearheaded the city’s stadium projects and the Comcast building; and $6,000 from Michael Silberman, vice-president of chemical corporation Celanese.
