Gibson Dunn

Zainab Ahmad, a veteran terrorism prosecutor who recently served on the special counsel team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, is joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York as a white-collar partner.

Ahmad joined Mueller's team in 2017 from the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, where she burnished a reputation as a prosecutor who traveled the world building terrorism cases, collecting evidence and testimony overseas. She won convictions against members of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the group commonly known as ISIS.

Ahmad becomes the latest member of Robert Mueller III's team to find a home in a major law firm following the Russia investigation, which ended in April with the special counsel saying the evidence didn't show President Donald Trump's campaign coordinated or conspired with the Kremlin. Mueller, however, did not exonerate Trump, who was described in a series of events as having attempted to obstruct the two-year probe.

On Mueller's team, Ahmad played a leading role in the prosecution of Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security advisor who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his discussions with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. Flynn recently fired his lawyers at Covington & Burling as he awaits sentencing, raising questions about his next steps.

Ahmad is set to start July 15 in the New York office of Gibson Dunn, where she plans to focus on cybercrime, money laundering, sanctions and corruption, including investigations into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a federal law prohibiting the use of bribes to build business overseas. Ahmad said she also considered other firms but declined to name them.

In an interview Tuesday, Ahmad declined to discuss her time in the special counsel's office and the recent developments with Flynn, saying only that she was “proud of the manner in which we did the investigation” and “honored to be part of that team and to work with Bob Mueller, who's someone I really admire.”

After more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, Ahmad said she left the special counsel's office in March wanting to return home to New York and feeling ready for the “next challenge and the next phase” of her legal career.

Within weeks, Ahmad was having lunch with Joel Cohen, co-chairman of Gibson Dunn's white-collar defense and investigations group, at Maialino, an Italian restaurant inside the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York. Over two hours, they discussed their travels to Africa and shared friends and colleagues from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, where Cohen had been a prosecutor in the 1990s.

“I have loved every minute of being a prosecutor. And when I found myself ready for the next move and the next challenge, the things that I really wanted to emulate in terms of what I loved about my job were working on issues that I found interesting and meaningful and working with people that I really respected and liked, frankly,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad is joining Gibson Dunn at a time when the firm continues to set high marks for revenue growth. Gibson Dunn this year recorded its 23rd straight year of revenue growth, taking in more than $1.8 billion in 2018. Profits per equity partner increased 3.2% to $3.35 million, The American Lawyer reported in February. Revenue per lawyer rose more than 8% to nearly $1.4 million.

Kenneth Doran, the Gibson Dunn chairman, has attributed much of the growth to the firm's moves into new markets, including Houston and Frankfurt, and to the firm's expanded partnership through promotions and lateral hires.

In Gibson Dunn, Ahmad said she found a firm that provided opportunities to continue to work internationally on high-stakes matters involving the “most interesting issues going on in the white-collar arena.”

“I really wanted a place that had a truly global platform as opposed to just an office here and there. And I felt that GIbson offered that to an extent other firms that I was looking at didn't,” she said.

Joel Cohen Joel M. Cohen of Gibson Dunn

Following her lunch meeting with Cohen, Ahmad visited Gibson Dunn's offices in New York, Washington and Los Angeles. Cohen said Ahmad impressed the offices with her focus on learning about the firm's culture.

“Her constant, incessant questions about culture to everybody actually impressed everybody. In some places, it would have been like, 'Stop asking us about the culture.' But at Gibson, it resonated,” Cohen said.

Ahmad clerked for U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York in 2006 and later for Judge Reena Raggi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Columbia Law School grad was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, the firm to which another Mueller prosecutor, Greg Andres, returned in May.

Despite her scant experience in private practice, Cohen said he left his first meeting with Ahmad convinced she could make the transition from career prosecutor to partner at a major law firm.

“It's not simply her incredible record in EDNY and things she's done in Washington. There's a passion and an ability to connect with people,” Cohen said. “That's the kind of stuff that's really important to our practice.”

 

Read more:

Jeannie Rhee, Mueller Prosecutor and Ex-Wilmer Partner, Joins Paul Weiss

Michael Dreeben, Deputy Solicitor and Top Mueller Lawyer, Ends DOJ Career

Mueller Probe's Greg Andres Returns to Davis Polk

Where Will Robert Mueller and His Fellow Wilmer Alums Go Next?

Thomas Hungar, Formerly House General Counsel, Returns to Gibson Dunn

Gibson Dunn's Ted Boutrous, CNN's Champion, Is Fired Up