White Collar Crime

Assistant Attorney General Lanny A.

Rita Glavin, former head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, has joined Vinson & Elkins as a partner in the law firm’s New York office, where she will lead and build the firm’s New York white collar practice.

Federal prosecutors have filled an important position: Andrew W. Schilling has been named the new chief of the Civil Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Schilling follows James L. Cott, who had served as the Chief of the Civil Division since February 6, 2003. 

Samuel J. Buffone, former co-head of the Government Enforcement Practice Group at Ropes & Gray, has a new home: the Washington, D.C., office of BuckleySandler.

Steven Tyrrell, former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section, is joining the Weil Gotshal law firm as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office effective February 1, 2010.  Tyrrell and Boston-based Weil partner Thomas C. Frongillo will serve as co-chairs of the firm’s Investigations & Criminal Defense practice.

Welcome back, everyone!

There’s another online article to which we would like to point you this morning. It’s “A Preview of Trials and Tribulations in 2010,” by Peter J. Henning, a law professor who specializes in white collar crime issues and writes about them for the Times. In his piece, he discusses the Galleon insider trading case, involving billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam; the alleged Ponzi scheme case involving R.

A white collar criminal defense lawyer, Gary Grindler, has been appointed Acting Deputy Attorney General, effective Feb. 5, 2010. His appointment becomes effective upon the departure of Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden. 

It’s no doubt at least partly attributable to the change in administration in Washington. But we think the major reason we’re now seeing such tremendous movement from the prosecutorial ranks to the white collar defense bar is because law firms – and their corporate clients – are gearing up for a “battle royale” with federal (and state) prosecutors. 

The trend that we’ve highlighted recently – federal prosecutors moving to private law firms to practice white collar criminal law – is continuing. In a big way. A lot of smart people must believe that there is going to be a large, growing need for white collar criminal defense lawyers in the future.