Sheppard Mullin Opens in New York City
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP announced today the opening of a New York office centrally located in midtown at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. “This major step builds on the tremendous success of our Washington, D.C. office, which opened just nineteen months ago,” said Guy Halgren, chairman of the firm. "Opening a New York office will help us serve our clients headquartered in New York, who have operations or matters arising in the metropolitan region, or who engage in sophisticated financial transactions."
James J. McGuire, a highly respected trial attorney specializing in white collar criminal and complex commercial litigation matters, joins Sheppard Mullin to lead the New York office. McGuire was most recently a partner at White & Case in New York. Also joining and previously associated with White & Case are commercial litigators Mark Berube, Tim McCarthy and Mitchell Rovner. Berube specializes in white collar and antitrust litigation, McCarthy in international mass tort and intellectual property litigation, and Rovner in securities fraud, antitrust and trademark litigation.
Commented McGuire, "Joining Sheppard Mullin provides an exciting opportunity to work with first-rate legal professionals and lead the firm's expansion in New York." He added, "Our plan includes growing the New York office rapidly, responsibly and efficiently. We will build on both our keystone litigation practice and existing strengths in entertainment and media, finance and bankruptcy, employment law, corporate transactions, and other practice areas."
Rounding out the nine-attorney office are existing Sheppard Mullin lawyers who will also play key roles in the New York office. Robert Darwell, the firm's Entertainment and Media group co-chair, and Entertainment and Media partner Ben Mulcahy will divide their time between the new office and the firm's Century City office. They will build on the firm's prominence in the areas of entertainment and advertising, which practice currently includes representation of Disney, Sony, Paramount, New Line and The Marketing Store Worldwide. Additionally, Entertainment and Media litigator Eric O'Connor is relocating to the New York office from Century City. Sheppard Mullin’s leading corporate tax partner, John Bonn, will spend significant time in the New York location and continue his affiliations with the firm's Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices.
McGuire is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and has extensive experience in internal investigations. He has worked with major accounting and investigative firms on inquests related to domestic and foreign banks, brokerage houses, public companies, and privately held entities. As a seasoned litigator in criminal and commercial matters at both the trial and appellate levels, McGuire has successfully tried over twenty jury cases to verdict. In white collar criminal matters, he has particular experience in the securities, tax, money laundering, antitrust, and fraud areas and regularly deals with the various federal agencies, including most particularly the SEC. McGuire has represented leading defendants in substantial grand jury investigations and federal and state prosecutions across the country.
McGuire’s civil litigation practice ranges across numerous practice areas, including securities, professional liability, product liability, employment, entertainment, intellectual property, RICO, fraud, and contract. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in major commercial cases, including a group of domestic and foreign clients in actions arising out of their ownership of luxury hotels in various markets, a Fortune 500 company and its subsidiaries in a fraud and breach of contract action related to the insurance industry, several real estate limited partnerships suing a public company in fraudulent conveyance to unwind a $200 million series of transactions, a major foreign financial institution alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to fund the events of September 11, 2001, major automotive and chemical manufacturers in complex product liability suits, a prominent HMO in a panoply of healthcare-related litigation, and a leading retailer of computer software in various contract, fraud, and intellectual property cases. In publicly filed matters over the last several years, McGuire's clients have included Cendant Corporation, Honeywell Inc., DMI Trust, Arthur Andersen LLP, and CompUSA Inc., among many others.
McGuire received his B.A., cum laude, with honors and distinction from Yale College in 1976 and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1982. As a Rhodes Scholar, he also received an Honours B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oxford and a L.L.M. from the London School of Economics. Berube received his B.A., summa cum laude, from University of Massachusetts in 1993 and his J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law in 1997. McCarthy received his B.A., magna cum laude, from University of Notre Dame in 1994, and his J.D. in 1997 and LL.M. in 1999 from Duke University School of Law. Rovner received his B.A., with highest honors, in 1996, and his M.S. in 1999 from University of Illinois. He received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 2000, as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
About Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP is a full service AmLaw 100 firm with more than 400 attorneys in nine offices located throughout California and in New York and Washington, D.C. The firm's California offices are located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Century City, Orange County, Del Mar Heights and San Diego. Sheppard Mullin provides legal expertise and counsel to U.S. and international clients in a wide range of practice areas, including Antitrust; Corporate and Securities; Entertainment and Media; Finance and Bankruptcy; Government Contracts; Intellectual Property; Labor and Employment; Litigation; Real Estate/Land Use; and Tax, Employee Benefits, Trusts and Estate Planning. The firm was founded in 1927.
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