Federal Prosecutor Joins McKool Smith

NEW YORK (August 19, 2013) --  McKool Smith has announced that Daniel W. Levy, a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, is joining the firm, effective September 2013, as a principal in the New York office after more than a decade of service as a prosecutor.

Mr. Levy joined the U.S. Attorney's office in 2002, and since then has conducted more than a dozen jury trials and argued more than fifteen times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He has led numerous significant investigations, often ones with an international component, and served as senior trial counsel for prosecutions involving all types of fraud offenses, including money laundering, securities fraud, bank fraud, theft of trade secrets, identity theft, tax fraud, and computer crimes. He has also been extensively involved in the investigation and prosecution of banks, bankers, and financial intermediaries that have assisted U.S. taxpayers in evading taxes in Switzerland.  Mr. Levy recently handled a major art fraud prosecution and secured a significant victory before the Court of Appeals in a trade secret case involving stolen source code for a bank's high frequency trading business.

Prior to his beginning service in the government in 2002, Mr. Levy worked as an associate at a large New York firm where he focused on securities litigation, white collar criminal defense, SEC enforcement proceedings, and intellectual property disputes. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen M. Orlofsky, United States District Judge, in Camden, New Jersey.

"Our white collar practice launched in 2009, and has since really found its footing representing clients in complex investigations and government enforcement actions," said Mike McKool, co-Founder and Chairman of McKool Smith.  "Dan is an important addition to the practice and the New York office."

Jack Cooney, the head of McKool Smith's white collar defense practice also noted, "Dan's experience as an investigator and a prosecutor will be invaluable to our clients. He is a talented trial lawyer and will add significant depth to our expanding white collar practice. We're really thrilled that he's joining the firm."

"McKool Smith's track record confirms its reputation as a legal powerhouse, and I believe my experience will be an ideal fit for the firm's white collar practice. I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for Jack Cooney, and I'm looking forward to practicing with him and the other trial lawyers at the firm," said Mr. Levy.  

With more than 175 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC, McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America's leading trial firms. Over the past seven years, the firm has secured seven nine-figure jury verdicts, as well as seven eight-figure jury verdicts. The firm has also won more National Law Journal and VerdictSearch "Top 100 Verdicts" over the last five years than any other law firm in the country. Courtroom successes like these have earned McKool Smith critical acclaim and helped the firm become what The Wall Street Journal describes as "one of the biggest law firm success stories of the past decade." McKool Smith represents leading clients in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and white collar defense matters.