Orrick hires Lewinsky's adviser in Clinton battle

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has hired Monica Lewinsky's former lawyer Preston Burton, uniting him with former adversary and Bill Clinton adviser Lanny Davis in Orrick's Washington DC litigation department.

Burton joins Orrick from Caplin & Drysdale, but it was while he was a partner at the Law Offices of Plato Cacheris that he snared his most famous client. He represented Lewinsky during the investigation by the Office of Independent Counsel.

Davis was White House special counsel to President Clinton during the Lewinsky investigation. Prior to his White House appointment, he was with Patton Boggs, one of DC's top lobbying firms, from 1975, where he returned after advising Clinton. He joined Orrick in October 2003.

The former adversaries will now be working across the hall from one another as partners in Orrick's DC office. Burton is the latest in a series of lateral hires that have been added to Orrick's white collar crime and securities litigation groups.

Burton is the third former assistant US attorney to join Orrick in the last 19 months. Earlier in the year, the former chair of Gray Cary's white collar crime unit Ed Davis and his team were lured from DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. The securities litigation team was also boosted by the 24-lawyer former Brobeck Phlegher & Harrison team that joined from Clifford Chance's West Coast offices.