Former Federal Prosecutor Wawrzyniak Joins Goodwin in California

Former federal prosecutor Katherine Wawrzyniak is joining Goodwin Procter as a partner in its San Francisco office, after she led the government’s cases against former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski and Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nukulin.

Wawrzyniak, a former O’Melveny & Myer attorney, joins Goodwin Procter as it looks to expand its white-collar defense and government investigations practice.

As technology companies develop disruptive technologies, the government elevates its scrutiny of them, said Jennifer Fisher, head of Goodwin’s litigation department for Northern California.

“We want a team of lawyers in Northern California that’s going to be well-versed in those technologies as Katie is and also have a real practical approach to helping our clients navigate government scrutiny,” she said.

Wawrzyniak joined the US attorney’s office in Northern California in 2015 after eight years at O’Melveny.

She served as an assistant US attorney in the corporate fraud and organized crime and drug enforcement task force before becoming co-chief of the general crimes section in 2020. She was later appointed as acting chief and deputy chief of the criminal division, where she oversaw roughly 95 assistant US attorneys

Wawrzyniak successfully led the case against Levandowski, a former Google engineer who pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from the search giant related to self-driving vehicles. Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2020 but received a full pardon by President Donald Trump in January 2021.

Goodwin is representing Levandowski in his Chapter 11 bankruptcy case stemming from a $179 million arbitration award against him for Google.

She also led the prosecution of Russian hacker Nukulin, who was sentenced to seven years in prison after a six-day jury trial in late 2020 for hacking into LinkedIn, DropBox and FormSpring.

“I hope to be the kind of lawyer that helps clients with their thorniest legal problems, whether that’s an intractable matter that’s looks like it’s headed toward trial or a highly sensitive government investigation,” Wawrzyniak said.