DLA Piper said Wednesday it had added Edward McAndrew as partner in the firm's intellectual property and technology practice.

McAndrew, who will work from DLA Piper's offices in Wilmington, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., is a former federal cybercrime prosecutor who is joining from Ballard Spahr.

He said there were geographical and practice-mix limitations constraining him at Ballard Spahr, where he co-chaired the firm's privacy and data security group and led its cyber incident response team; that won't be a concern at much-larger DLA Piper. 

“DLA has the best global platform available and one of the best privacy and cybersecurity teams already in place,” McAndrew said.

DLA Piper suffered a major security breach itself in June 2017. McAndrew said he studied how the firm reacted, responded and recovered from the attack and determined that its resilience has helped its professionals become better lawyers and advisers who understand cyber crime.

McAndrew said he considered other opportunities he did not identify, including outside of Big Law, but determined that DLA Piper would be the best fit for him.

“As we continue to strengthen and expand our core privacy-related practice offerings, Ed's broad understanding of the complex cybersecurity concerns that clients face will offer invaluable experience that further strengthens our highly rated cybersecurity practice,” said Ann Ford, co-chair of DLA Piper's U.S. intellectual property and technology practice. “His experience, both in private practice and in his prior roles at the Department of Justice, has given him a unique and valuable perspective on responding to cyberattacks, conducting digital investigations and proving criminal and civil cases in courtrooms.”

Before joining Ballard Spahr in January 2016 as a partner in its litigation and white-collar defense/internal investigations groups, McAndrew spent a decade with the Justice Department as federal cybercrime prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Eastern District of Virginia and for the District of Delaware, and as national security cyber specialist at Main Justice in Washington, D.C. 

Earlier in his career, he was partner at Reed Smith in Washington, D.C., for more than seven years after spending two years as a litigation associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.  

“Ed has led hundreds of cybersecurity investigations for the federal government and private clients, and has developed a stellar reputation among his peers,” said Stuart Brown, managing partner of DLA Piper's Wilmington office, in a statement. “We are pleased to welcome him to the firm.”