O’Melveny Adds White Collar Lawyer Kelley as Partner in NY (1)

David N. Kelley has joined O’Melveny & Myers as a partner in the white collar defense and corporate investigations practice group in New York, the firm said Monday.

Former colleagues at the firm and the O’Melveny’s work quality made the decision to join easy, according to Kelley. “The firm has a terrific reputation and a great body of work that fits well with the practice that I have,” he said in an interview.

Kelley, who served as a US attorney for the Southern District of New York, will represent and advise multinational and domestic public companies, boards of directors, audit committees, officers, and directors, according to O’Melveny. The firm has hired a handful of other government alums including Rebecca Mermelstein and AnnaLou Tirol in 2022.

David Kelley

Kelley is bringing most of his dozen or so existing clients in the move and plans to team up with other partners to generate new business this year, he said. He was on the legal team quashing a congressional subpoena for former FBI director James Comey in 2018 and has also represented biometric software company Cryptometrics Inc. He served as co-chair of the Justice task force investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.

He will work on enforcement matters, internal and regulatory investigations, governance and compliance issues, monitorships, and criminal investigations, O’Melveny said.

Before joining O’Melveny, Kelley previously was a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Dechert, where he was the former co-leader of the white collar and securities litigation practice.

An earlier version of this story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Law Automation.