Legal News

Lightfoot Vandevelde lawyers join Crowell & Moring to form new L.A. office

By Jason Siegel

The lawyers at the white-collar law firm Lightfoot Vandevelde Sadowsky Crouchley Rutherford & Levine have joined Washington's Crowell & Moring to form the firm's new Los Angeles office.

All seven of the firm's lawyers and its entire staff will help with the launch of the office, Crowell & Moring announced. They will join the firm's white-collar and securities litigation group, which has expanded significantly in recent years with additions in London, New York and Washington. The new Los Angeles office will complement the firm's Irvine, Calif., office, which has more than 30 lawyers.

"A critical part of Crowell & Moring's plan for enhancing client service internationally is growth in California, which has some of the most challenging litigation in the country and is a crossroads to Asia," Kent A.

Gardiner, Crowell & Moring's chairman, said in a news release. "Lightfoot Vandevelde's sterling reputation gives us a powerful presence in the important Los Angeles market."

The new Crowell & Moring attorneys are senior partner Michael J. Lightfoot; partners John D. Vandevelde, Janet I. Levine, and Jeffrey H. Rutherford; senior counsel Stephen B. Sadowsky and John S. Crouchley; and associate Marta VanLandingham.

Lightfoot was a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, and the chief trial deputy for the federal public defender's office in Los Angeles.

Vandevelde is a former assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, where he served as the office's chief of complaints. He advises clients on securities fraud, environmental, health care, public corruption, antitrust and other criminal matters. He will head the Los Angeles office.

Levine handles matters such as health care fraud, securities fraud, public corruption, and tax fraud.

Rutherford is a former deputy federal public defender who handles white-collar criminal matters, particularly in the areas of public corruption, antitrust and financial fraud.

Sadowsky has more than 25 years experience defending individuals and businesses in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings, with a focus on workplace investigations, as well as environment, health care and securities matters.

Crouchley has handled a variety of criminal and litigation cases, including the defense of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations and the prosecution and defense of False Claims Act complaints.

Crowell & Moring has more than 400 lawyers in six offices.

-- Vesna Jaksic

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on October 10, 2008 (boomark / email).