Kenneth Abell, David Eskew and Scott Landau, partners at Abell Eskew Landau. 

Three former assistant U.S. attorneys, including one who recently was a unit chief in the New Jersey office, have launched a New York boutique focused on defending and counseling clients in the health care industry.

Kenneth Abell, David Eskew and Scott Landau launched their boutique, Abell Eskew Landau, earlier this month in Manhattan. They said the boutique, with lower rates than Big Law firms, can serve health care industry clients seeking an internal investigation or regulatory counseling or clients facing government investigations, whistleblower cases or other civil litigation.

The three partners met as AUSAs in the civil division of the Eastern District of New York in 2008, and all ended up practicing in the healthcare field, Eskew said.

Eskew was most recently the chief of health care fraud unit at the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office. Landau was an in-house lawyer for the Mount Sinai Health System, and Abell has been practicing at Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara, Wolf & Carone.

"Without really planning it or strategizing, we found our way to seeing each other more and more often" at industry events and the like, Eskew said. "That's really what planted the germ of, this is something we can do."

Eskew said the firm's soft launch was Jan. 6, shortly after he officially left the government. He said the firm already has work; Mount Sinai, where Landau had been an assistant general counsel, has hired the firm, and Abell, who led Abrams Fensterman's health care fraud and white-collar defense group, remains of-counsel at that firm.

Lee Cortes, a federal prosecutor who worked on the Bridgegate cases, has taken the reins of the health care fraud unit in New Jersey, Eskew said. Abrams Fensterman's website indicates that Glenn Jones is now chairing the health care fraud and white-collar defense group.

Currently, the three name partners are the only ones on the firm's website. While "the small-firm identity" is important, Eskew said, and the partners want to stay flexible, they are interviewing and hiring associates and staff, he said.