Cravath Litigation Leader Buretta Leaves for Paul Hastings

One of Cravath’s top trial lawyers left to lead the litigation practice at Paul Hastings.

John Buretta, former chair of the investigations and regulatory enforcement practice at Cravath Swaine & Moore, began in a new role of overseeing the Paul Hastings litigation practice on Monday, he said in an interview. He co-chairs the practice with DC-based partner Kwame Manley.

“Kwame is based in DC and I’m based in New York—that really gave great coverage for the two areas that generate disputes,” Buretta said. Cravath, in a statement, wished Buretta well.

Buretta is the fourth Cravath partner whose exit has become public this year, including financial institutions group head and DC office managing partner Jelena McWilliams, who left for Plaid Inc., tax lawyer Andrew Davis, who left for Paul Hastings, and national security lawyer Ben Joseloff, who went to Davis Polk & Wardwell.

John Buretta

Buretta called Cravath “a great firm” where he worked as a junior lawyer before entering the Justice Department. First an assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Buretta later moved to main Justice, where he eventually oversaw the criminal division as principal deputy assistant attorney general.

A key feature of his new role will be to help attract talent to Paul Hastings as it grows its M&A bench. He said the firm is interested in continuing to grow its trial bench in commercial and antitrust litigation to help cross-sell services to the firm’s corporate and transactional clients.

The firm “has attracted some market leaders in the M&A space that will generate on occasion M&A disputes in litigation,” Buretta said. “For Paul Hastings, as it continues to build on top of a strong team in the M&A space, you’ll see those types of disputes start to arise.”

Global Managing Partner Sherrese Smith said the firm’s litigation practice has been steady. “Corporate has been up and down, but litigation has been a revenue driver for a lot of firms in our industry,” she said.