Three Ex-Prosecutors Among Five Leaving Mayer Brown for Sheppard Mullin

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Page 3

Three Ex-Prosecutors Among Five Leaving Mayer Brown for Sheppard Mullin

By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer

Five former members of Mayer Brown’s Los Angeles office, including three former assistant U.S. attorneys, have joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP’s Los Angeles office, the latter firm has announced.

Sheppard Mullin said Friday that Bryan D. Daly, Charles L. Kreindler and Peter Morris made a lateral move to become partners in the firm’s Business Trial and Government Contracts practice groups specializing in white collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation, joined by Barbara E. Taylor and Melissa K. Eaves as special counsel.

The firm’s chairman, Guy Halgren, said the group brings “an incredible collective litigation background that includes a significant amount of federal prosecution as well as private practice experience,” and predicted that its knowledge and expertise would “significantly enhance” Sheppard Mullin’s White Collar Defense practice and expand its civil litigation capabilities.

Daly, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California in the Criminal Division, Public Corruption and Government Fraud Section, graduated from Ramapo College in New Jersey and Rutgers University School of Law before his admission to the State Bar in 1985.

As a federal prosecutor, he was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of government fraud cases, and he has represented businesses and executives under investigation or charged with white collar criminal offenses since becoming a private practitioner.

He has also conducted internal investigations and compliance inquiries for a number of major corporations; investigated fraud and other allegations of misconduct on those companies’ behalf; and coordinated voluntary disclosures and case referrals to the Department of Justice and other impacted agencies.

Kreindler, who attended State University of New York at Albany and Boston University School of Law, was also admitted to the State Bar in 1985, and similarly served as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles from 1989-97. Since joining private practice, he has successfully represented individuals and companies in relation to federal criminal investigations, as well as both plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases.

Morris was admitted to the State Bar in 1986 after graduating from Cornell University and Harvard Law School, and served in as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles from 1989-91.

In addition to white collar defense and complex business litigation, he specializes in healthcare matters and securities litigation, and he previously held a full-time faculty appointment with UCLA’s law school from 1994-96.

Taylor attended California State University, Sacramento and Yale Law School before her admission to the State Bar in 1993, and is also admitted to practice in the State of New York. Her practice includes complex civil litigation focusing on defense of false claims cases, and corporate internal investigations.

Eaves was admitted to the State Bar in 1986 after graduating from UCLA and Pepperdine Law School, and practices in complex civil litigation, false claims act litigation and appellate work.

In other practice news, Bingham McCutchen LLP announced yesterday that Mike McDonough, of the firm’s Environmental Group in Los Angeles, has been elected partner.

A 1997 admittee to the State Bar who graduated from Stanford University and law school at Pepperdine, McDonough focuses on environmental litigation, compliance and counseling for air and climate change, soil, and water quality issues, and has experience representing a wide variety of government and private entities on environmental matters at the federal, state and local levels.