DealBook: Ex-U.S. Attorney to Join Davis Polk Law Firm in Washington

DealBook: Ex-Chairman of the F.T.C. Is Set to Join Davis Polk

Alex Wong/Getty ImagesJon Leibowitz, the former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.

Davis Polk & Wardwell has hired Jon Leibowitz, the former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, a coup for the law firm as it bolsters its increasing presence in Washington.

Mr. Leibowitz served four years as head of the F.T.C., during which he pushed for consumer privacy protections, policed merger activity and reined in predatory lending practices. He left his post in February and was elected to the Davis Polk partnership on Monday, his 55th birthday.

The Supreme Court also handed Mr. Leibowitz a birthday present on Monday in a case that had become of a priority for the F.T.C. The justices ruled that federal regulators can sue brand-name pharmaceutical companies for antitrust violations when they pay generic drug makers to keep rival products off the market.

“Jon had committed his regime to this ‘pay-for-delay’ issue, trying to protect consumers from rising drug costs,” said Albert A. Foer, the president of the American Antitrust Institute. “He should get a lot of credit for this personally.”

Davis Polk, which is based in New York, plans to use Mr. Leibowitz’s expertise to advise its corporate clients on competition issues related to mergers and acquisition transactions, as well as to counsel companies in the burgeoning area of privacy law.

Mr. Leibowitz raises the firm’s already considerable profile in Washington at a time when government policy affecting corporate America is increasing. As outside counsel for several of the country’s largest banks, for instance, Davis Polk has played a significant role in helping shape the new rules emerging from the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street overhaul law. In the enforcement area, Annette L. Nazareth, a former commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Linda Chatman Thomsen, a former S.E.C. enforcement chief, are Davis Polk partners.

“In today’s markets, what our clients value highest is the most sophisticated and experienced risk advisers,” said Thomas J. Reid, the managing partner of Davis Polk. “Jon fits that bill perfectly.”

On the antitrust front, Mr. Leibowitz is the latest in a string of senior government antitrust lawyers who have departed for private practice after serving in major posts during President Obama’s first term. Christine A. Varney, the former head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, joined Cravath, Swaine & Moore in 2011. And last year, Sharis A. Pozen, a former top Obama antitrust lawyer, joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Joseph F. Wayland, another senior Justice Department antitrust official, returned to his former firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

These changes come as the White House has stepped up its antitrust enforcement efforts, strengthening its scrutiny of business behavior after what was widely considered a period of lax regulation during the Bush administration. The spate of moves could fuel criticism of Washington’s revolving door, where lawyers shuttle from the government to the private sector, defending the very clients whom they once sought to regulate.

Mr. Leibowitz, who grew up in Englewood, N.J., enters private practice after eight and a half years at the F.T.C. He was a commissioner for more than four years before being named chairman in 2009.

Under his leadership, the F.T.C. brought a number of high-profile cases, including an action against Facebook related to its customers’ privacy and an enforcement matter charging Intel with stifling competition in the microprocessor market. The commission came under some criticism for failing to accuse Google of abusing its dominance in Internet searches.

President Obama has appointed Edith Ramirez, who was a sitting F.T.C. commissioner, to succeed Mr. Leibowitz as chairman.

Mr. Leibowitz said that after more than two decades as a public servant, he looked forward to practicing law, something he found renewed passion for while at the commission. “At the F.T.C., I was reading cases, thinking through litigation strategy and found that I really enjoyed it,” Mr. Leibowitz said. (He will also get a substantial raise over his government salary; the average Davis Polk partner earned about $2.5 million last year, according to American Lawyer magazine.)

Before his term at the commission, Mr. Leibowitz worked as a lobbyist at the Motion Picture Association of America. He had previously been a longtime staffer on Capitol Hill, including a dozen years working for Hebert H. Kohl, the former senator from Wisconsin.

He will start at Davis Polk next month after taking a trip to the Galápagos Islands with his wife, the Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, and their two daughters.

“I’m getting as far away from civilization as I can before diving back in,” Mr. Leibowitz said.

Davis Polk Launches Hong Kong Litigation Practice With Clifford Chance Hires

Davis Polk & Wardwell has recruited two Clifford Chance partners to launch a Hong Kong litigation practice.

Martin Rogers, the former head of Clifford Chance's Asia Pacific disputes practice and co-head of its regional financial regulatory practice, and partner James Wadham are both set to join Davis Polk "in the near term," according to Thomas Reid, the New York-based firm's managing partner.

Reid says the move was driven by the demand of domestic and international clients facing a rising tide of enforcement actions in Asia. "We certainly have seen our clients asking for help in enforcement matters in Asia with increasing frequency," he says.

The move is the firm's second major expansion into Hong Kong practice in recent years. Though it opened its Hong Kong office in 1993, Davis Polk, like many Wall Street firms, only practiced U.S. law in the region until 2010, when it launched a Hong Kong capital markets practice. Since then, most of Davis Polk's major New York rivals, including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Sullivan & Cromwell have launched similar practices.

But Hong Kong capital markets have been in a severe slowdown since the end of 2011, and Davis Polk's push into local litigation reflects a desire to create a more balanced practice in the region.

Several firms have deployed litigation partners from the U.S. and elsewhere to advise companies in Asia on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. But Davis Polk is also eyeing the more active financial regulatory stance that Hong Kong's Securities & Futures Commission has adopted under chief executive Ashley Alder, a former partner at the firm now known as Herbert Smith Freehills.

The SFC recently announced a new Companies Bill that would make auditors criminally liable if they knowingly or recklessly omit a required statement from an auditor's report. And Hong Kong's securities regulator announced last week that banks could be held criminally liable if the companies they sponsor in IPOs provide false information on their prospectuses. Rogers has already been working with Davis Polk Hong Kong partner Bonnie Chan in advising 23 investment banks in their interactions with the SFC, says Reid.

Qualified in England and Hong Kong, Rogers has been a partner at Clifford Chance since 2002, when he moved to that firm from the Hong Kong office of Herbert Smith, where he had worked for 14 years and had been named Asia managing partner just prior to leaving.

Wadham began his career in New Zealand, where he worked for Auckland's Russell McVeagh. He joined Clifford Chance in Hong Kong in 2002 and became a partner in 2007. Like Rogers, he focuses on advising clients in the financial services industry. He is admitted in New Zealand, Hong Kong and England.

In a statement, Clifford Chance said it continued to have a strong litigation and dispute resolution practice in the region, noting its announcement last week of a formal law alliance with Singapore litigation boutique Cavenagh Law.

"We have every confidence this will not affect our relationships with our institutional clients as Clifford Chance offers the highest quality advice and service across the broadest range of international law expertise available in the market," the firm said.

Davis Polk Launches Hong Kong Litigation Practice With Clifford Chance Hires

Davis Polk & Wardwell has recruited two Clifford Chance partners to launch a Hong Kong litigation practice.

Martin Rogers, the former head of Clifford Chance's Asia Pacific disputes practice and co-head of its regional financial regulatory practice, and partner James Wadham are both set to join Davis Polk "in the near term," according to Thomas Reid, the New York-based firm's managing partner.

Reid says the move was driven by the demand of domestic and international clients facing a rising tide of enforcement actions in Asia. "We certainly have seen our clients asking for help in enforcement matters in Asia with increasing frequency," he says.

The move is the firm's second major expansion into Hong Kong practice in recent years. Though it opened its Hong Kong office in 1993, Davis Polk, like many Wall Street firms, only practiced U.S. law in the region until 2010, when it launched a Hong Kong capital markets practice. Since then, most of Davis Polk's major New York rivals, including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Sullivan & Cromwell have launched similar practices.

But Hong Kong capital markets have been in a severe slowdown since the end of 2011, and Davis Polk's push into local litigation reflects a desire to create a more balanced practice in the region.

Several firms have deployed litigation partners from the U.S. and elsewhere to advise companies in Asia on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. But Davis Polk is also eyeing the more active financial regulatory stance that Hong Kong's Securities & Futures Commission has adopted under chief executive Ashley Alder, a former partner at the firm now known as Herbert Smith Freehills.

The SFC recently announced a new Companies Bill that would make auditors criminally liable if they knowingly or recklessly omit a required statement from an auditor's report. And Hong Kong's securities regulator announced last week that banks could be held criminally liable if the companies they sponsor in IPOs provide false information on their prospectuses. Rogers has already been working with Davis Polk Hong Kong partner Bonnie Chan in advising 23 investment banks in their interactions with the SFC, says Reid.

Qualified in England and Hong Kong, Rogers has been a partner at Clifford Chance since 2002, when he moved to that firm from the Hong Kong office of Herbert Smith, where he had worked for 14 years and had been named Asia managing partner just prior to leaving.

Wadham began his career in New Zealand, where he worked for Auckland's Russell McVeagh. He joined Clifford Chance in Hong Kong in 2002 and became a partner in 2007. Like Rogers, he focuses on advising clients in the financial services industry. He is admitted in New Zealand, Hong Kong and England.

In a statement, Clifford Chance said it continued to have a strong litigation and dispute resolution practice in the region, noting its announcement last week of a formal law alliance with Singapore litigation boutique Cavenagh Law.

"We have every confidence this will not affect our relationships with our institutional clients as Clifford Chance offers the highest quality advice and service across the broadest range of international law expertise available in the market," the firm said.

News Corp. Hires Former WilmerHale and Davis Polk Lawyers in Compliance Push

News Corp. has appointed five group chief compliance officers (GCCOs) in a shake-up of its global compliance structure, including an ex-U.S. federal prosecutor and a former lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The new compliance structure will be headed up by the recently installed group GC and chief compliance officer Gerson Zweifach, who was brought in last February to steer News Corp.'s efforts to shake up its governance following the phone-hacking scandal.

In an internal memo to staff, Zweifach confirmed the five full-time appointments, who have been brought in to ensure the business "operate[s] with the highest level of integrity," and who will strengthen the company's training programs, internal controls and auditing.

In a position that will attract much scrutiny in the U.K., Candy Lawson has joined as GCCO for Europe and Asia. Lawson, who will be based in London, joins from Morgan Stanley, where as EMEA anti-corruption counsel she designed and implemented the bank's compliance program. She was also previously a lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York.

Elsewhere, Brian Michael, formerly a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York and Los Angeles, and more recently a lawyer at U.S. law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, will now oversee compliance for the Fox Networks Group, which includes Fox Broadcasting Co., Fox Sports Media Group, Fox International Channels, FX and National Geographic Channels.

John McCoy, who will also be based in Los Angeles, will look after compliance for the worldwide operations of Twentieth Century Fox Film, Twentieth Century Fox Television and Shine Group. He joins News Corp. from the SEC, where he was the associate regional director of the enforcement division in Los Angeles. Prior to this, McCoy was a litigation partner at Los Angeles firm Bird Marella Boxer Wolpert Nessim Drooks & Lincenberg.

Meanwhile, Keith Wood will continue to serve as director of internal audit and risk for News Ltd. for News Corp.'s Australia group. New York-based news and information GCCO Lisa Fleischman will oversee compliance of Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox TV Stations Group, Dow Jones, the New York Post, HarperCollins, News America Marketing and Amplify.

Fleischman, also a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, will also serve as News Corp.'s deputy chief compliance officer.

The appointments come after News Corp. confirmed in June that it intends to divide its publishing and media/entertainment businesses into two separate companies, with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom taking the lead advisory role.