Former New York Mayor and the face of Bracewell & Giuliani, Rudolph Giuliani (pictured), is leaving the firm for Greenberg Traurig as the latter firm moves to bolster its crisis management and white collar practices.
Giuliani, who founded Bracewell & Giuliani’s New York office a decade ago, joins Greenberg as global chair of the firm’s cybersecurity and crisis management practice and will become senior adviser to Greenberg executive chairman Richard Rosenbaum.
Rosenbaum said the appointment will bring to the firm Giuliani’s unparalleled experience in all areas of legal problem-solving and crisis management, as well as his unique geopolitical insights.
He added: ‘While many other firms hold on to old business models or follow strategies premised on global growth for growth’s sake, for years we have focused on maintaining our uniquely empowering and collaborative, one-firm culture while delivering elite quality in our core practices along with extraordinary value not possible in traditional elite firms.’
Giuliani said he looked forward to joining a firm which addressed the complex needs of multinational clients.
‘This comes at a time when my practice and Greenberg’s particular focus on cybersecurity and related counseling, investigations and litigation is an absolute match. Data privacy and security risks are on the top of the mind of every chief executive, general counsel and corporate board I speak with, and Greenberg is clearly positioned as a top-tier and highly sophisticated player in this space.’
Greenberg announced Giuliani’s appointment along with the hire of prosecutor Marc Mukasey who will serve as global co-chair of the firm’s white collar defense practice. Mukasey had worked at Bracewell & Giuliani alongside the former mayor for more than a decade, and was recently lead trial counsel for executives in the Countrywide mortgage fraud trial. He has also defended one of the three Nomura executives facing charges over mortgage-backed securities, acted on the Deepwater Horizon blowout and major league baseball steroid investigations.
Meanwhile, Houston-based Bracewell & Giuliani will become Bracewell from now onward. The firm’s managing partner Mark Evans said: ‘Our New York office and our white collar practice will continue to have tremendous leadership through our long-time New York managing partner, Daniel Connolly, who joined the firm with Rudy in 2005, and has substantial prosecutorial experience.’
victoria.young@legalease.co.uk
