Power Circuit: A Federal Prosecutor Chooses Private Practice

Jennifer Taylorleft the DoJ to join McDermott Will & Emery as a partner. Photograph courtesy of the firm.

McDermott Will & Emery welcomed Jennifer Taylor as a partner in its white-collar and securities defense practice. Taylor spent the past seven years at the Department of Justice, most recently as a federal prosecutor in the fraud section of the criminal division, handling securities, bank and procurement fraud, and investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Morris, Manning & Martin has added an international trade group from Troutman Sanders, including partners Donald Cameron Jr., Julie Mendoza, R. Will Planert, and Brady Mills; associate Mary Hodgins; and trade analyst Paul McGarr. The new additions nearly double the size of Morris, Manning’s DC office.

Tracy Bacigalupo has joined Foley & Lardner’s transactional and securities practice as a partner. Previously, Bacigalupo was a partner at DLA Piper.

Securities and investment management lawyer Ruth Epstein has joined Stradley Ronon as a partner from Dechert, where she was a partner in the financial services and investment management group.

Venable welcomed advertising and marketing attorneys Randal Shaheen and Amy Mudge as partners. They arrived from Arnold & Porter.

Venable has also announced changes to firm management. Karl Racine, who has been the firm’s managing partner for the past six years, is stepping down to focus full time on his white-collar and commercial litigation practice. Replacing him are co-managing partners Lindsay Meyer and Robert Waldman. Washington-based Meyer is a partner in the firm’s international trade practice, and Baltimore-based Waldman is a tax partner.

James Shea remains Venable’s Chairman, though he will now be joined by a vice chair, Brian Schwalb, a civil litigator and trial lawyer based in Washington.

And DLA Piper has changed up management of its Northern Virginia office. Tara Lee, co-chair of the firm’s global transnational litigation practice, has been named managing partner in Reston. She succeeds Dale Lazar, who will continue to focus on his intellectual property practice.

Marisa M. Kashino

Senior Editor

Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 as a staff writer, and became a senior editor in 2014. She oversees the magazine’s real estate and home design coverage, and also writes long-form feature stories. She was a 2020 Livingston Award finalist for her two-part investigation into a possible wrongful conviction stemming from a murder in rural Virginia. Kashino lives in Northeast DC.