Linklaters ex-US chief Byrne joins exodus to Pepper Hamilton

Byrne, a litigation partner, is joined at the US firm’s Manhattan base by an additional five-lawyer team including Linklaters associates Martin Bloor and Linde Regis-Hallinan, both of whom become of counsel, and litigation counsel Ruth Harlow, who has come on board Pepper Hamilton as a partner.

Byrne will also become managing director of Freeh Group International Solutions, an international risk management outfit acquired by Pepper Hamilton in September 2012.

The move sees Pepper Hamilton beef up its New York investigations practice, with Byrne focusing on government and internal probes, as well as related trial and appellate matters.

Between 1988 to 1994 he served with the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the criminal division of the US Department of Justice in Washington DC.

Byrne joined Linklaters from White & Case in 2006 (20 October 2006). He headed Linklaters’ US litigation practice from 2006 to 2011, was co-managing partner of the New York office from 2007 to 2011 and co-headed the overall US practice from 2009 to 2011, when he was replaced by Jeff Norton and Conrado Tenaglia (16 May 2011).

He was one of the lead partners on the US side in the firm’s team acting for Lehman Brothers’ administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers following the bank’s 2008 collapse (25 September 2008).

Harlow has acted on major post-credit crisis disputes involving financial institutions and has a background in US Supreme Court litigation spanning First Amendment and equal protection cases.

Pepper Hamilton CEO Scott Green said in a statement: “Larry is a highly regarded litigator whose reputation and practice are particularly strong in New York and the financial industry, both strategic growth areas for the firm and our white collar practice.”

Linklaters recently reopened in Washington DC after a shutting an office in the capital ten years before (28 November 2012).