Paul Weiss Sharpens Investigations Focus With New Practice Group

Paul Weiss has launched an investigations practice as scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers require specialized expertise from multiple law firm areas.

The formalized investigations practice shows how the firm’s clients “more than ever” face overlapping scrutiny from multiple federal, state, and overseas agencies, in addition to governments and Congress, said Jeannie Rhee, a former federal prosecutor who is one of three co-leaders of the practice.

“They want holistic solutions and trusted counsel who can guide them through the most complex and multifaceted matters,” Rhee said.

Law firms create practices to better respond to emerging issues, to highlight the expertise they possess and to better connect lawyers with disparate skillsets. Cooley earlier this year launched a congressional investigations practice in Washington with the addition of former federal prosecutor Susanne Grooms.

Paul Weiss Wharton Rifkind & Garrison, with a roster of high-profile litigators and former government lawyers, has long been known for major investigations. These included a probe of the New England Patriots’ “Deflategate” incident, allegations of discrimination at BlackRock, and a Credit Suisse review of its relationship with hedge fund Archegos Capital Management, whose founder Bill Hwang is facing a criminal trial.

Along with Rhee, who worked with Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation, the new practice’s co-leaders include Harris Fischman, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office, and John Carlin, who served in the Justice Department in a top role under deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco.

The investigations team also includes former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, firm chairman Brad Karp, and litigator Ted Wells Jr.

In total, it includes lawyers with more than 80 former government roles, including within the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the New York Attorney General’s office.

“There’s been a massive evolution in the way that investigations are conducted at the government level,” Fischman said. “It’s a change in terms of what they’re looking at, where and how they’re looking for evidence, and what types of cases they’re bringing.”

In one example of the government’s cross-agency collaboration, the Justice and Commerce departments paired with the FBI and Homeland Security to launch a task force protecting advanced technologies from being acquired by foreign adversaries.

Since its launch in early 2023, the so-called Disruptive Technology Strike Force has taken an “all-tools” approach to charge more than a dozen cases, the Department of Justice said in February.

“You’re seeing increased communication in government around a problem set,” Carlin said. “That blows up this hyper-specialization model that might have been in place before, and it’s quite deliberative by the government.”