Nicole Argentieri.

Amid reports of a potential tie-up with Allen & Overy, O'Melveny & Myers has recruited Nicole Argentieri as a partner for its white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice in New York.

Argentieri makes the move back to private practice after a decade in public service. A former associate in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's white-collar criminal defense group, Argentieri left the firm in 2007 to join the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. In 2016, the Brooklyn-based Argentieri was elevated to chief of the public integrity section, and she also served as acting head of the office's organized crime and gangs section.

“Having been in the Eastern District for 10 years, I felt that it was a great time to move on,” Argentieri said. “I was looking for the things that I really loved about the Eastern District, which are the people and the great work. When I started meeting people at [O'Melveny & Myers], I just could not have been more impressed.”

During her time in the EDNY, Argentieri handled and supervised numerous high-profile investigations and prosecutions involving organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering and corruption. She had a role in the high-profile prosecution in 2015 of reputed mobster Vincent Asaro in connection with the 1978 Lufthansa heist at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport—a caper made famous by the film “Goodfellas”—and other crimes. (Asaro, who was acquitted in that case, was eventually given an eight-year prison sentence in December in an unrelated road rage arson case.)

Most recently, Argentieri co-led the prosecution of Carlos Martinez, a former lieutenant at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, who was found guilty of repeatedly raping a female inmate—a case that highlighted the issue of sexual assaults at the facility.

“I basically prosecuted every type of case I could at the U.S. Attorney's Office, from organized crime cases, mafia cases and civil rights cases,” Argentieri said. “Given that experience, it's going to be pretty seamless to put that experience to work for clients on the other side.”

In her new role at O'Melveny & Myers, Argentieri said that she is hoping to build a practice representing both individuals and companies facing government prosecutions and litigation. She also hopes to help strengthen the firm's existing relationships and add to them through her network of contacts.

“I'm really excited about this opportunity,” Argentieri said. “The firm is a great place and it's got a lot of personality [and] I'm hopeful that I will be very successful here.”

Argentieri's move to O'Melveny & Myers comes three months after Richard Donoghue was tapped to serve as the new U.S. attorney in the EDNY. In March, Seth DuCharme was named as the new head of the office's Criminal Division following the departure of predecessor James Gatta, who returned to Goodwin Procter as a partner in New York.

O'Melveny & Myers has been busy in recent months building up its white-collar and corporate investigations bench. The firm, which saw its financials rise in 2017, last year welcomed back Stevan Bunnell, a former general counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Bunnell now serves as co-chair of O'Melveny & Myers' data security and private practice in Washington, D.C. The firm also brought back Damali Taylor, another ex-federal prosecutor, as a partner for its white-collar defense practice in San Francisco.

Earlier this year, O'Melveny & Myers hired Laurel Loomis Rimon, a former general counsel of the office at the inspector general at Homeland Security, as senior counsel for its white-collar defense and financial technology practices in the nation's capital.

Argentieri declined to discuss whether or not she used the services of a legal recruiter in joining O'Melveny & Myers, or to comment on the firm's purported talks with Allen & Overy. A spokesman for O'Melveny & Myers reiterated a statement issued by the firm April 6 denying reports about its potential interest in a cross-border combination.

“We have no plans to merge and never have,” said the firm, which in 2002 acquired New York-based shop O'Sullivan.

On Monday, Winston & Strawn confirmed its hire of Richard Shutran, a veteran corporate partner at O'Melveny & Myers in New York whose interest in leaving the firm has been linked to its discussions with Allen & Overy. Shutran, a former chair of the global finance practice and co-chair of the corporate department at Dewey & LeBoeuf, joined O'Melveny & Myers in 2012.