Latham & Watkins project finance attorney Amy Maloney is joining Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as a partner in its Boston office.

Maloney, who was most recently counsel at Latham & Watkins in New York, will relocate from New York City for the move.

The decisions to swap cities and switch law firms came independent of one another, Maloney said. She had been in discussions with Morgan Lewis for some time, exploring the possibility of joining the firm. At the same time, Maloney's family relocated to Boston, her husband's hometown, this summer after 14 years in New York.

(Maloney's husband, Sean Maloney, is a former Sidley Austin associate currently serving as deputy general counsel at insurance giant AIG.)

Maloney, a Pennsylvania native, first joined Latham in 2007 and became a partner in Latham's project finance group in 2012. Last August she became counsel at the international law firm.

“It's sort of a nontraditional path, but it worked out for me,” Maloney said. 

In joining Morgan Lewis, Maloney said that she plans on bringing her finance expertise to work to build out and strengthen the firm's lender-side practice.  

“They really just made me an offer I couldn't refuse,” said Maloney, who officially joined Morgan Lewis on Oct. 22. “It was just such a great opportunity to join what is a really dynamic group of folks doing lots of different kinds of energy work on the financing front, which is really my area of expertise.”

Maloney works with clients on the development, construction, operation and debt and equity financing around various types of energy and infrastructure projects.

She focuses her practice on project finance and development, working with sponsors and financing sources including commercial and investment banks, insurance companies private equity funds and other investors.

Morgan Lewis first opened up an office in Boston in 2003, but five years later it expanded its footprint with the addition of 11 attorneys from now-defunct Bingham McCutchen.

Ahead of Bingham McCutchen's demise in late 2014, Morgan Lewis absorbed the majority of the firm's partners, dramatically increasing its headcount in Beantown. The Philadelphia-based firm currently boasts a headcount of 165 lawyers in Boston, making it the seventh largest Am Law 100 firm in the city, according to data by ALM Intelligence.

“It's really such a strong team [here],” Maloney said. “It's a really good size Boston office, which is a little bit different than my prior firm,” she said.

Latham first opened up an office in Boston in 2011 with seven lateral hires from Bingham McCutchen, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and Proskauer Rose. The firm now has around 77 lawyers in its office, according to ALM Intelligence.

But for Maloney, it wasn't just the size or the practice focus that drew her to Morgan Lewis. It was its leadership and, in particular, its female leadership, she said.

“Having a strong female presence at the firm is definitely felt and appreciated by me and my female colleagues,” Maloney said. In September, Morgan Lewis's chair Jami Wintz McKeon was elected to her second five-year term heading the nearly 1,300-lawyer firm that had a gross revenue over $2 billion in revenue in 2017. 

“That made Morgan Lewis extremely unique when I was exploring my options.”

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