Hogan Lovells Hires In-House Leader from Client IBM

Hogan Lovells has grabbed a longtime legal leader from one of its clients, IBM, to serve as a senior counsel with the firm’s antitrust, competition, and economic regulation practice.

David Walsh, who was with IBM for 36 years, now works out of Hogan’s Boston office.

He left the computer giant as vice president and assistant general counsel, based at the company’s headquarters in Armonk, NY. He most recently headed up the legal department for IBM’s Global Business Services branch and led M&A and antitrust teams at the company.

Walsh, whose move was announced the first of the year, said he’s excited to be with Hogan in part because of the extensive antitrust work he did with the firm while at IBM. In the U.S., he told Bloomberg Law, Hogan has become IBM’s lead outside counsel on antitrust and competition matters.

A unique circumstance spurred Walsh to make the Hogan move instead of retiring outright on Dec. 31: the $34 billion IBM acquisition of the open-source software and technology company Red Hat that IBM announced in late October.

Walsh said in the lead-up to his IBM retirement, the company’s chairman and general counsel had urged him to stick with IBM through the completion of the Red Hat purchase. That could take place as early as this spring, or more likely sometime later in 2019, according to Walsh.

The offer to work at Hogan was a satisfying compromise, said Walsh—in part because it allowed the Cambridge, Mass. native, to move back to the Boston area. “For me, it was the perfect transition solution,” he said.

Walsh served as IBM’s head of global antitrust for many years, where he resolved matters involving the Justice Department, the European Commission, and several other antitrust agencies.

“We are delighted that after years of working with him at IBM, David has decided to join our team,” Edith Ramirez, co-head of Hogan’s Antitrust, Competition, and Economic Regulation practice and former chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, said in a statement. “His onboarding will strengthen our relationship with IBM, a long-time client, and also bolster our experience to clients in the technology industry.”