Former Deputy White House Counsel Joins Latham in New York

Latham & Watkins LLP¹ is pleased to announce that Michael Bosworth has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner in the Litigation & Trial Department and member of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice. Prior to joining Latham, Bosworth served as Deputy General Counsel for global holding company MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, following an impressive career in government. 

Michèle Penzer, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in New York, said: “Michael is a great talent with varied experience that will serve our clients well. He is an excellent addition to the team, who will bolster the continued growth of our Litigation & Trial Department in New York. Michael’s unique combination of experience in government and the private sector will further strengthen the team of leading white collar lawyers in this office and worldwide.”

In addition to his most recent role in the private sector, Bosworth has an array of government experience. He served as the Deputy Assistant and Deputy Counsel to President Barack Obama from June 2014 to January 2017, where he provided legal advice to the President and senior White House officials and oversaw domestic policy legal issues. He advised on strategy in high-profile litigation, key legislation, regulations, and executive actions. Bosworth also worked closely with senior Department of Justice officials and Cabinet agency general counsel, and led inter-agency consideration of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues. Prior to his service in the White House, Bosworth served as Special Counsel to the Director of the FBI and was a prosecutor at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he most recently served as Co-Chief for the Complex Fraud Unit and Deputy Chief for the Public Corruption Unit. In those roles, Bosworth oversaw the US Attorney’s cases involving financial and accounting fraud, bribery, money laundering, cybercrimes, tax crimes, intellectual property theft, economic espionage, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. He successfully tried multiple cases to verdict as well as briefed and argued appeals before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In recognition of his work, Bosworth received the J. Michael Bradford Award for Outstanding AUSA from the National Association of Former US Attorneys in 2013 and the Prosecutor of the Year Award from the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation in 2012. Out Magazine also named him to the Out100 List of influential members of the LGBT community in 2016.

Benjamin Naftalis, Global Vice Chair of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice, added: “Michael was highly respected in each role in which he served in government and in the private sector. He is a powerful legal advocate, a skilled crisis manager, and a practical, commercially minded strategist. We’re thrilled to welcome him to Latham where he will be an asset to clients navigating white collar matters, internal investigations, cybercrime matters, and other complex disputes.”

“Latham’s White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice is known for offering clients unparalleled experience combined with sound judgement and commercial savvy.” said Bosworth. “I’m thrilled to join the team and looking forward to working with a fantastic group of colleagues and clients, as they navigate complex disputes in and out of the courtroom.”

Bosworth currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law, a Trustee of the John Jay College Foundation, an Adviser to the American Law Institute, Principles of the Law: Policing, and as a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council (to which he was presidentially appointed in 2017).

Early in his career, Bosworth clerked for the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff for the US District Court, Southern District of New York, the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the US Supreme Court. He earned his JD from Yale Law School, where he was Comments Editor of the Yale Law Review, and earned his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University. Bosworth was also the recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest honor awarded to a Princeton undergraduate.

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