Seyfarth Shaw has secured a quartet of white collar lawyers from dissolving firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York and Washington DC. 

The group includes partners Scott Morvillo and Ellen Murphy and counsel Nicole Lloret, who will be based in New York. Meantime Richard Morvillo, who co-chaired Stroock’s white collar and internal investigations practice, will join Seyfarth as counsel in Washington DC. 

The group, among the last Stroock lawyers to secure new homes, focus on SEC, criminal and internal investigations, FCPA matters, trials and appeals as well as compliance issues. Seyfarth said they brought particular depth in market abuse, securities and bank fraud matters involving the financial sector. 

“We are excited that this group of litigators has chosen to continue their careers at Seyfarth, where they can take advantage of our platform,” said James McGrath, national chair of the firm’s litigation department. 

“Market demand for complex litigation and regulatory work is extremely high. Adding these experienced attorneys deepens our bench of securities, financial services, high level investigations and white collar litigators in New York and Washington.”

The team originally joined Stroock in summer 2021 from Orrick. News of their move to Chicago-headquartered Seyfarth follows Stroock’s partnership voting to dissolve the firm at the end of October after the failure of several well-publicised attempts to find a merger partner against the backdrop of partner and team departures. That culminated in the hire by Hogan Lovells of a 28-partner team that included co-managing partner Jeff Keitelman.

Earlier in the year a 10-lawyer litigation team also departed Stroock for Morgan Lewis & Bockius, while last year Paul Hastings unveiled an “extraordinary” raid on the firm that saw it hire an 18-partner restructuring team in New York. 

Meanwhile, Stroock has appointed Gary Polkowitz, a senior managing director at Teneo, as liquidation manager responsible for overseeing the wind down of the firm. 

New York insolvency law boutique Togut Segal & Segal, well known for its pioneering work advising on law firm failures, is serving as legal counsel, while high-profile restructuring expert David Pauker, who played a key role in overseeing Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, has also been hired as a special adviser.

Stroock said then that “only a few attorneys remain in the Stroock offices and those few will vacate before the end of the year”. 

The firm’s website remains online and currently lists 19 people.