McDermott Will & Emery has grown its white-collar and investigations offering in New York and Washington DC with the hire of a seven-lawyer team from rival Orrick.  

The 1,400-lawyer firm has also hired Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutor Sagar Ravi as a partner in Washington DC, where he will advise on government investigations and enforcement actions with a focus on cybersecurity and digital assets.

The hires continue the rapid build out of Chicago-based McDermott’s white-collar team, which has grown 34% over the past year to 47 lawyers.  

The lawyers joining from Orrick focus on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and False Claims Act (FCA) matters and cybercrime. The group is led by New York-based Guy Singer, who headed Orrick’s FCPA practice, and includes fellow partners Anne Murray, Franklin Monsour and Kelly Newsome and newly-minted partner Caitlin Sheard. They are joined by a pair of associates. 

“We see momentum on the horizon for FCPA matters and government investigations, and we’re scaling our practice to leverage these opportunities,” said Michael Poulos, partner in charge of firm strategy at McDermott. “These new hires reflect our commitment to looking around corners and providing new strategies clients can use to get ahead of potential enforcement matters.”

Singer is consistently recognised as a leading FCPA lawyer and brings years of experience as a federal prosecutor in the fraud section of the US Department of Justice’s criminal division to McDermott.  

Meantime Murray investigates and counsels clients on ethics, fraud and corruption issues globally while Monsour, a former assistant US attorney for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, represents clients in criminal and regulatory cases, including FCA matters.  

Newsome advises on anti-corruption compliance matters and has experience navigating FCPA monitorships, and finally Sheard helps clients navigate high-stakes white collar criminal investigations and enforcement matters, with a focus on FCPA and anti-corruption compliance.  

An Orrick spokesperson commented: “We are grateful to Guy, Anne, Franklin and Kelly for their contributions to our firm and we wish them well.”

For his part Ravi returns to private practice after nine years at the US Attorney’s Office for the SDNY, where he was most recently chief of the complex frauds and cybercrime unit. In that role he supervised around 20 senior prosecutors working on white-collar and cybercrime matters, including some of the first criminal investigations involving AI and billion-dollar cryptocurrency frauds.

“We are delighted to welcome these partners to our team, extending our capabilities in FCPA and cyber issues,” said Steven Scholes, global head of McDermott’s litigation practice. “As we continue to invest in our burgeoning white-collar practice our focus remains squarely on being the go-to partner for our clients, and that’s exactly what this group helps us achieve.”

Among the recent additions to the team is Mayer Brown’s former Paris head of investigations, Nicolette Kost De Sèvres, who joined McDermott in the French capital early last year to co-head its global investigations and compliance group.  

Blank Rome bolstered its white collar offering across New York and DC in February with the hire of a four-lawyer team from Akerman led by partner Bradley Henry, who joined in New York as practice vice-chair.  

Seyfarth Shaw also secured a quartet of white-collar lawyers across the two cities last December from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, shortly before the latter dissolved.