Legal News

White-Collar Heavy, Former Howrey Lawyer, to Join Bracewell & Giuliani

By Ashby Jones

Despite the fact that the Howrey website is still up, don’t be fooled: the firm is dead.

And that means we can expect the remaining Howrey heavy-hitters who haven’t yet announced where they’re going to land places before too long.

The latest big fish to get netted: Richard Beckler, the co-head of a practice at Howrey that went by the name “Securities Litigation, Government Enforcement and White Collar Defense.” Next week, Beckler (pictured) will join Bracewell & Giuliani in its Washington, D.C. office. Beckler will work in the firm’s white-collar defense department out of its Washington, D.C. office.

He’ll join a growing practice at Bracewell that includes the former NYC mayor himself, Rudy Giuliani, Marc Mukasey, William McMurrey and Kevin O’Connor.

Beckler is the former chief of the DOJ’s Criminal Fraud Section. He represented Admiral John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra investigation and Bill Casey, former CIA Director in an FBI and grand jury investigation involving debate briefing books stolen before a debate between President Carter and President-elect Reagan.

More recently, Beckler represented a former Invesco executive in an improper-trading probe; a former Janus executive in a market-timing case; and CDR Financial Products, a Beverly Hills, Calif., company at the center of a 2008 pay-to-pay probe involving former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.

At Bracewell, Beckler is expected to work closely on matters related to the BP oil spill.

In the meantime, according to this post over at AmLaw Daily, Jones Day will take on six more former Howrey partners. Jones Day has already picked up a dozen former Howrey partners in recent months.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).