Kathleen Hartnett of Cooley. Courtesy Photo Kathleen Hartnett of Cooley. (Courtesy photo)

Kathleen Hartnett, a former Justice Department attorney who was co-leader of Boies Schiller Flexner's San Francisco office, has jumped to Cooley as a partner.

Hartnett, who was a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's federal programs branch and associate counsel to President Barack Obama, left Boies Schiller on Thursday and joined Cooley the next day.

News of Hartnett's departure from Boies Schiller comes a day after Law.com reported two other partner exits. Lee Wolosky and Dawn Smalls, New York-based partners who are independent monitors overseeing Deutsche Bank's compliance with a major regulatory settlement, just moved from Boies to Jenner & Block. In the last month, two groups of other Boies Schiller partners announced they had struck out on their own in New York and Florida to launch new firms.

In an interview, Hartnett said she learned about the opportunity to join Cooley from Ian Shapiro, who leads the firm's business litigation on the East Coast. She said her clients and Cooley's overlap and that, while her practice was mostly domestic, she was drawn to Cooley's international platform.

Both Boies Schiller and Cooley have London offices; Cooley also has teams in Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai and Belgium.

Federal court records show Hartnett represents Facebook, also a client of Cooley's. According to her former Boies Schiller profile, Hartnett has represented a "major technology company" in copyright and tort litigation, public policy and regulatory issues and crisis management counseling.

She's also appeared on behalf of UnitedHealthCare Services and cryptocurrency firm Ripple Labs, and as counsel for a group of former government officials filing amicus briefs in litigation against the Trump administration.

Hartnett did not discuss her clients in an interview and said it was too early to say which matters would be coming with her and which would stay with Boies Schiller.

Her practice had included high-stakes civil litigation and the provision of "strategic counsel" in "major battles in the technology industry."

Hartnett joined Boies Schiller in 2016 following five years in the Obama administration. While at the Justice Department, she defended the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as President Obama's immigration policies.

Last summer, Boies Schiller announced she was one of two new administrative partners in Boies Schiller's Oakland office, which has since moved to San Francisco. Her departure leaves Quyen Ta as the administrative partner in the office.

Mike Attanasio, who chairs Cooley's litigation department, said Hartnett is among a string of talented litigators to join the firm, including John Hemann, from the San Francisco U.S. Attorney's Office, and East Coast-based Elizabeth Prelogar and Andrew Goldstein, both of whom were in special counsel Robert Mueller's office.

"We continue to see a key strategic need at Cooley to build out and build up our litigation presence," Attanasio said. "She's already tied into a number of the traditional Cooley innovative clients in [Silicon] Valley and beyond."

Hartnett's exit coincides with the departure of Wolosky and Smalls for Jenner & Block and comes shortly after two partner groups spun off new firms on the East Coast.  On Jan. 8, Law.com reported that Mark Heise, Luis Suarez, and Patricia Melville were starting their own firm in Coral Gables, Heise Suarez Melville. A week later, Roche Cyrulnik Freedman launched with 11 Boies attorneys, mostly counsel and associates.

Leaders at Boies Schiller have said in recent interviews with Law.com that while the departures have been more than usual, they won't harm the firm's bottom line. Nick Gravante, one of four managing partners, said the departures won't be "material" and said the firm has promising candidates in the pipeline.

In a statement, managing partner Natasha Harrison wished Hartnett well. "We are confident her time and experience at Boies Schiller will serve her very well," she said.

Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously stated that most of the Boies lawyers who moved to Roche Cyrulnik Freedman had been partners. Most had been counsel and associates.

Read More:

Boies Schiller Names 2 New Leaders Amid Transition at the Top

Three Boies Schiller Partners Splinter Off To Create New Litigation Boutique

More Defections From Boies Schiller as Several Attorneys Leave to Launch New Boutique