Manhattan Prosecutor Lonergan Jumps to Tech Firm Wilson Sonsini

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has brought aboard Manhattan federal prosecutor Jessica Rose Lonergan to join its litigation department in New York, the law firm announced Tuesday.

Lonergan, hired in an of counsel role, has nearly 11 years of experience as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Her addition comes as large law firms across the country are looking to bulk up their white collar criminal defense rosters.

Lonergan led more than 175 grand jury investigations and prosecutions involving bribery, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, bank and wire fraud, frauds against the government, tax evasion, labor union fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and narcotics trafficking, according to the firm. She also conducted nine criminal jury trials and briefed and argued a number of appeals at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Jessica is an accomplished investigator and litigator, and her decade of experience in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York handling some of that office’s most significant cases and most sensitive investigations will provide tremendous value to the firm and its clients,” said Moe Fodeman, a litigation partner in Wilson Sonsini’s New York office, in a statement.

Wilson Sonsini, which was founded in Silicon Valley and advises clients in the technology and life sciences among other areas, has more than 200 litigators across the firm. It reported more than $1.1 billion in gross revenue to the American Lawyer last year, ranking among the 40 largest firms in the country.

Lonergan said she was looking “forward to working with the firm’s broad range of clients and leveraging my trial and investigative skills to help grow the practice.”

She will be joining a team of litigators and former federal prosecutors at Wilson Sonsini who represent public companies, private entities, and other organizations in complex commercial litigation and in government investigations and corporate governance matters. In 2019, the firm won a judgment of acquittal for a former senior executive of the now defunct Platinum Partners hedge fund.