Debevoise & Plimpton said Tuesday that its New York office has hired Davis Polk & Wardwell partner and Justice Department alumnus Avi Gesser, who helps companies manage their data and prepare for and respond to cyber attacks and other crises.

Gesser, who joins the white-collar and cybersecurity groups as a partner, has advised financial services companies, hedge funds, private equity firms and media organizations on cybersecurity and the related risks of litigation and regulatory action, Debevoise said. He spent nearly all of his career at Davis Polk, apart from a three-year stretch with the DOJ.

Gesser said he has known Luke Dembosky, who co-chairs Debevoise's cybersecurity and data privacy group, for a few years and approached him about the opportunity to move firms. Gesser said he and Dembosky also worked together on a matter he couldn't disclose, but Dembosky said Gesser's "steady hand and voice of reason" in that case impressed Debevoise.

"As my practice started to be more and more data-focused, it looked to me like Debevoise was really the right platform," Gesser said.

Gesser joined Davis Polk in 1998 and made partner there in 2007, according to a biography from his previous firm. He worked from 2010 to 2012 as counsel to the chief of the Fraud Section of the DOJ's criminal division, and worked from 2011 to 2013 as the deputy director of the Justice Department's Deepwater Horizon task force that investigated and prosecuted the companies responsible for the disastrous 2010 oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

These days, he said, his data practice is split, with about 75% of it helping clients be proactive about their data security and about 25% of it reacting to urgent situations. He said no associates or staff are making the move to Debevoise with him, at least for now.

Debevoise said Gesser, whose first day at the firm was Tuesday, would bolster its ability to walk clients through crises. It said Lisa Zornberg, who joined the firm last April after having run the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, added a similar skill set, having represented "a prominent financial institution in connection with a cyber incident" and an unnamed tech company in an inquiry into its artificial intelligence practices.

Dembosky said he, Gesser, Zornberg and Jim Pastore were well-equipped to help clients with their data security matters. He said issues like AI, blockchain and the use of data were rapidly evolving, with relatively few rules or precedents, and said senior managers and board members have to spend a lot of time addressing them.

"There's a whole range of legal, technical and practical issues" for top corporate officials to think through, he said.

A representative for Davis Polk said, "We wish Avi all the best in this new chapter of his career."