Varsity Blues Prosecutor to Build Jones Day’s Boston Office

Andrew Lelling, the former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney who oversaw prosecutions in the infamous “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal is set to take on a new project, building out Jones Day’s white-collar investigations and trial practice in New England.

“If I’m able to fill that role, then I get a little more flexibility because I’m anchoring that practice in the region,” Lelling said in an interview with Bloomberg Law Thursday. “I’m [also] part of a huge law firm that already does a lot of really cool stuff.”

Lelling, who joined Jones Day’s Boston office on Wednesday, served as the state’s top federal prosecutor for three years after his appointment in 2017 by former President Donald J. Trump. A nearly career-long prosecutor, Lelling said he narrowed his search for a law firm by looking at those with large international practices.

He also had close relationships with at least two Jones Day lawyers. His former colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, Amy Burkart and Ryan Disantis, had previously made the move to Jones Day.

Jones Day’s Boston office has around 40 lawyers, according to its website. Burkart and Disantis, currently of counsel at the firm, are in the white collar group, and one other Boston partner, Lisa Ropple, is listed in that practice.

One of relatively few Republican officials in Massachusetts, Lelling said he also viewed favorably the decisions by former Department of Justice leaders including Noel Francisco and Eric Dreiband to return to Jones Day.

“It was very significant to me that they went back,” Lelling said. “That said to me that it was a well-run firm and people enjoyed working there.”

Lelling gained a national profile through his work on the Varsity Blues case, which ensnared celebrities like actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, as well as the former co-chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Gordon Caplan. He’s also played a role in the prosecution of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Under the Biden administration, Lelling said he expects an increase in investor-related fraud cases at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

He also said he expects more pattern and practice investigations of local police departments to be conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

News reports following notice of Lelling’s impending departure from his top prosecutor role pegged him as possibly seeking a future career in politics.

“What I’ve said before and which is true is I think it’s unlikely I’m going to do that,” Lelling said. “I’m not totally foreclosing that, but it’s not in my immediate plans. I want to go back into the private sector. I want to do that work.”