White & Case sign/Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Former Las Vegas Sands general counsel Ira Raphaelson has found a new home at White & Case, joining the firm's antitrust practice as senior counsel in its Washington, D.C., and Chicago offices, several months after ending a short stint at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.

Raphaelson had briefly stepped away from the practice of law after leaving Stroock in August. But at a periodic lunch with an old friend and colleague, White & Case competition practice global head Mark Gidley, the two broached the subject of working together again.

The pair had worked together at the U.S. Department of Justice under then-Attorney General Bill Barr, who is currently undergoing Senate confirmation to return to the seat. They also overlapped as partners at Shaw Pittman Potts Trowbridge, now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, where Barr also was a partner earlier in his career.

“You've got to come practice with me,” Gidley told Raphaelson at the lunch.

“It took us a little while to decide who had time when, and who I could meet in the practice,” Raphaelson added. “Finally, as the year-end came, we said, 'Let's do it in the new year.'”

The attorney, whose hire was announced by the firm Wednesday, will advise clients on complex transnational issues, litigation that involves competition issues and a host of connected governance issues.

“Ira comes to us as one of a handful of lawyers who has been a senior executive and general counsel of public companies, independent director, law firm partner, presidential appointee, career prosecutor and academic,” Gidley said in a statement. “Ira's extensive courtroom and boardroom experience in venues around the world make him a pragmatic and effective business and governance counselor, as well as strategic planner for bet-the-company litigation and market entry,”

Ira Raphaelson

Raphaelson arrived at Stroock as senior counsel last February as part of a six-month trial arrangement in the firm's financial services litigation practice, joining his former O'Melveny & Myers colleague Michael Keats. the co-leader of the practice. But after Keats departed for Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in May, Raphaelson determined that the relationship no longer made sense, and briefly left the practice of law.

He instead kept himself busy by teaching a course on legal aspects of businesses entering foreign markets at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, and continuing his role as the lead independent director of Inspired Entertainment, a Nasdaq-listed global gaming technology business.

Raphaelson served as Las Vegas Sands' executive vice president and general counsel from 2011 to 2016, handling compliance issues around international regulation, government relations and human resources. He had an earlier in-house stop at Scientific Games Corp., where he was vice president, general counsel and secretary. His responsibilities included governance matters and regulatory compliance in 52 countries, and he assisted the gambling services company on its entry into China.

Under President George H.W. Bush and Attorney General Barr, Raphaelson served as the first special counsel for Financial Institutions Crime during the savings and loan crisis.

Raphaelson also has a background as prosecutor, trying numerous high-profile fraud and corruption cases. He served as the U.S. attorney in Chicago for nine months.

“I have been blessed during my career, working with colleagues who became friends and working on some of the most complex matters lawyers get to face. It's what keeps the practice of law fresh,” he said. “I think this is going to be the intellectual stimulation I'm still looking for in practice. I'm very much looking forward to it.”

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Former Las Vegas Sands GC Ira Raphaelson Joins Stroock