Former Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney Joins Sidley as Partner in New York
Joan Loughnane, former Acting Deputy United States Attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, will join Sidley Austin LLP’s Litigation Group in New York as a partner in its White Collar: Government Litigation & Investigations practice.
The firm said Loughnane will focus her practice on counseling and representing clients in connection with government investigations, enforcement actions, and prosecutions.
Loughnane is a litigator and counselor who joins Sidley following a 15-year career as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, where she served in a variety of leadership positions. In addition to her time as Acting Deputy United States Attorney—the second highest position in the office, in which she oversaw more than 200 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in both the Criminal and Civil Divisions—Loughnane also served at various times as Chief Counsel to United States Attorneys Preet Bharara and Geoffrey Berman, Acting Chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division (during which time she was the office’s Project Safe Childhood coordinator), and Co-Chief of the General Crimes Unit.
In these roles, Loughnane helped supervise many of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s most significant and high-profile cases in recent years in areas ranging from cybercrime to securities fraud to terrorism, the firm said in a release.
Prior to her supervisory and executive roles, Loughnane investigated and tried cases in a variety of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s trial units, including the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and the Violent Crimes Unit. During that time, she served as lead counsel on multiple federal trials, and briefed and argued numerous cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Loughnane was chosen in 2018 to receive the New York City Bar Association’s Henry L. Stimson Medal, awarded annually to outstanding Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Loughnane received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her J.D. from Stanford Law School and began her legal career as a law clerk for United States District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
“We are delighted that Joan will be joining Sidley. Her record of accomplishment is a testament to her intelligence, judgment, and legal acumen. From her leadership at the very top of one of the most important United States Attorney’s Offices in the country, Joan has a deep understanding of how the Department of Justice makes its most significant decisions and brings a high-level insider’s perspective on, and familiarity with, the federal criminal and civil enforcement landscape in and around New York and the country at large,” said Sam Gandhi, managing partner of Sidley’s New York office. “She will strengthen our already deep bench of former prosecutors, particularly in the critical and burgeoning area of cybersecurity, where Joan brings impressive experience from her time as acting head of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit and from her involvement in some of the most significant hacking cases in recent history.”
“A number of us have known Joan for years, dating back to our time together in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and we are very excited to welcome her to Sidley and to be able to work with her again,” said Timothy Treanor, co-leader of Sidley’s White Collar: Government Litigation & Investigations practice. “We all know Joan to be a terrific lawyer and a wonderful friend and colleague. Joan will be the fourth former prosecutor to join Sidley’s New York office from the SDNY in the last ten years, and she adds yet another valuable facet to our top-tier global enforcement and litigation practice.”
