Baker McKenzie offices in Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Baker McKenzie is looking to break down the walls between financial regulation and enforcement work with the hire of four new partners, including three from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, to launch a new North American practice.

Amy Greer, based in New York and Washington, D.C., and Jennifer Klass, based in New York, will co-chair the new practice, to be known as the financial regulation and enforcement group. They are joined by their former Morgan Lewis colleague, Chicago-based Peter K.M. Chan, along with Washington-based A. Valerie Mirko, who previously was general counsel at the North American Securities Administrators Association.

According to Greer, a securities litigator who formerly served as the chief trial counsel for the Philadelphia regional office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Baker McKenzie reached out and expressed interest in expanding the firm's securities enforcement practice.

"When I was contacted, I talked with them about my view that in order to have a meaningful enforcement practice, my experience over a considerable amount of time is that the key piece that often is missing is a well-developed regulatory practice," she said.

Greer also took the idea to Klass, once a vice president and associate general counsel at Goldman Sachs & Co. who focuses on investment adviser regulation. She was happy to get on board with a practice that looks at client needs more holistically.

"In addition to Baker understanding and embracing it, our clients find it very natural and intuitive," she said of combining the two elements.  "That's how they evaluate their business and that's how they think about risk."

Mirko, who advised the board at NASAA on developments in federal securities laws and their impact on state securities regulations, has known Greer for six years. Greer said her combination of previous enforcement experience with her recent regulatory focus made her an excellent fit for the new practice.

"In my time at NASAA, I saw firsthand in the last seven to eight years how the silos have been broken down by the regulators in how they do their day-to-day work," she said. "That's why its important that we on the defense side have no silos as well."

Chan, a veteran of the SEC's Chicago regional office, pointed to the experience that all four new partners have working together. He also noted that the practice, with "financial" in the title rather than simply "securities," would have a broad ambit.

"We think that there will be an overlapping of markets and regulatory schemes," he said.

Chan was the first of the four to arrive at Baker McKenzie two weeks ago, and Monday was the first day that all were on board together. They expect the group to grow, both by drawing in additional Baker McKenzie attorneys and through targeted hires.

"It appears there has been some folks waiting for this practice to exist here in North America on the Baker side," Greer said.

She added that while the four had a sense of the specialties they would like to add, they intended to base expansion on the personnel that becomes available in the marketplace and the issues that arise for clients as matters emerge as areas of focus for regulators.

A spokesperson for Morgan Lewis said, "We appreciate their time and contributions to our firm," of the three departing attorneys. Their exit follows the loss of David Miller, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, to Greenberg Traurig last week.

Earlier in the year, the firm also lost Nathan Hochman, the former head and assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice's tax division, to boutique Browne George Ross in Los Angeles and Ronald Tenpas, a former assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division of the U.S. Department of Justice, to Vinson & Elkins in Washington, D.C.

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