After more than 15 years with the U.S. Justice Department, Daniel Grooms is entering the private sector as a white-collar partner at Cooley in Washington, D.C.

Grooms was most recently assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he was chief of the criminal division from 2016 to 2018. During his tenure at EDVA, Grooms also oversaw the national security and international crime unit and the narcotics unit. And he  spent some time on loan to Main Justice as an associate deputy attorney general, working hand in hand with former deputy attorneys general Jim Cole and Sally Yates.

Grooms said last year he started seeking out opportunities in Big Law and said he was motivated to do so because he felt it was the right time for him personally and professionally to leave government work. Grooms did not identify the firms he considered, but he said in choosing Cooley he found a firm that would allow him to continue the type of work he was doing at the Justice Department.

“It was definitely the right thing to find a place that had a strong white collar practice and litigation [work] but also one that was ascending and growing,” Grooms said. Cooley's aggressive, creative and innovative approach to the law attracted Grooms, he said.

Grooms has a bevy of trial experience and has worked on a wide range of matters including cybercrime, sanctions and export enforcement, money laundering, multijurisdictional investigations, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, among many other things.

Mike Attanasio, chair of Cooley's global litigation department, touted Grooms' experience and “impressive record” of public service in a statement.

“His courtroom skills and Washington experience add further depth to our white collar bench and first-chair trial capability on the East Coast,” Attanasio said. “We're happy to welcome him to the private sector, where he will be an invaluable resource for our clients.”

Grooms noted that he was thrilled with Cooley's desire to continue growing its ranks nationwide and in his practice area in particular. He pointed to the firm's growth on the East Coast and D.C. as important to him.

Cooley has identified the white-collar practice's litigation side as an area where it anticipates growing in 2019, and it has continued to expand its East Coast presence in the last year, hiring former White & Case partner Kenneth Juster in Boston and former Boies Schiller Flexner partner Philip Bowman in New York.