Continuing its hiring steak during the pandemic, Latham & Watkins recruited an M&A partner in San Francisco and a litigation partner in New York.

Eric Schwartzman, who was at Cooley, rejoined Latham as a partner in its M&A and private equity practices in San Francisco and Menlo Park, California, the firm said Wednesday. On the same day, the firm announced Michael Bosworth, a former deputy White House counsel, joined Latham's white-collar defense and investigations practice in New York.

In announcing their bicoastal moves, Latham cited continuing activity and demand in their practices.

Although M&A activity has slowed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic recession, there's plenty to do for private equity clients, Schwartzman said in an interview.

"It's been a mixed bag overall when it comes to private equity," he said. "In the first stage of the pandemic, private equity and venture capital firms were looking at their existing portfolios and making sure everything was stable. So although deal-making slowed down, activity catering to existing portfolios did not."

Going forward, he said his clients are starting to think about distressed investing opportunities.

Eric Schwartzman Eric Schwartzman, Latham. (Courtesy photo)

"This current environment has the opportunity to introduce a whole slew of interesting deal structures," he said. "There are a lot of great companies out there, and they're still great, even in the current economy. There are going to be different deal structures as these companies need cash and start to look at private equity options."

Schwartzman declined to name any of his clients but said that some, although not all, would be moving with him from Cooley to Latham. Representatives for Cooley did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Schwartzman's move.

Schwartzman represents private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, strategic corporate acquirers and target companies in various kinds of transactions.

Schwartzman was a partner at Cooley for four years and previously a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges for four and a half years. He was an associate and partner in Latham's New York office for nearly 11 years, from April 2001 to January 2012, including three years when he co-chaired the firm's New York office's corporate department.

Schwartzman said rejoining the firm felt like "coming home" and that Latham's private equity work and growing technology industry focus were both factors in his decision to move.

"Private equity is focusing more and more on technology, while the world is moving toward more technology. In some ways, almost every company now is a tech company in some way," he said. "This move was an opportunity to expand my practice with Latham's deep private equity team and technology industry expertise."

News of Schwartzman's move follows several other M&A hires at various firms in San Francisco this year and comes on the same day Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer launched an office in Silicon Valley, grabbing five lawyers from U.S. firms for the launch.

Michael Bosworth Michael Bosworth, Latham. (Courtesy photo)

For his part, Bosworth, the new Latham partner in New York, will bolster the continued growth of the firm's litigation and trial department, the firm said. In particular, Bosworth "will be an asset to clients navigating white-collar matters, internal investigations, cybercrime matters and other complex disputes," said Benjamin Naftalis, global vice chair of Latham's white-collar defense and investigations practice, in a statement.

Bosworth was most recently deputy general counsel for global holding company MacAndrews & Forbes Inc. Before that, he served as the deputy assistant and deputy counsel to President Barack Obama from June 2014 to January 2017, where he provided legal advice to the president and oversaw domestic policy legal issues, Latham said, advising on litigation, legislation, regulations and executive actions.

Before his time in the White House, Bosworth was special counsel to the director of the FBI and was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, serving as co-chief for the complex fraud unit and deputy chief for the public corruption unit.

In the last few months, Latham has added several other partners, including IP litigators Arlene Chow and Ernest Yakob from Hogan Lovells; M&A lawyers Kate Withers, Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner from Kirkland; and Suzzanne Uhland, who was O'Melveny & Myers' U.S. restructuring practice chief.

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