27-01-2025
Snowden prosecutor, top US Treasury lawyer under Biden returns to Davis Polk
Jan 27 (Reuters) - White-collar lawyer and former U.S. attorney Neil MacBride has rejoined Davis, Polk & Wardwell following a two-year stint as general counsel to the U.S. Treasury Department, the firm said Monday.
MacBride will again co-lead the New York-founded firm's white-collar defense and investigations practice, Davis Polk said. Before Democratic former President Joe Biden appointed him and he was confirmed as Treasury's general counsel in 2022, MacBride led the firm's Washington office.
MacBride served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 2009 to 2014, overseeing several high-profile cases involving national security.
He brought the criminal case against Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents from the National Security Agency and later fled to Russia. He also secured a guilty plea from Farooque Ahmed, who received a 23-year sentence in 2011 for joining what he thought was an al Qaeda plot to bomb the Washington-area subway system.
MacBride's experience "is unmatched," Davis Polk managing partner Neil Barr said in a statement.
MacBride disclosed $11.7 million in partnership compensation from Davis Polk as part of his nomination to the Treasury post in 2021. His clients included Wells Fargo, Facebook, JP Morgan Chase Bank, ExxonMobil, Cisco Systems and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
Top law firms have moved quickly to hire senior lawyers leaving the government, opens new tab after Biden lost the November presidential election to Republican Donald Trump.
London-founded law firm Freshfields said Friday it hired Erik Gerding, who served as director of the corporation finance division at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission until the end of 2024.
