Seyfarth Expands Financial Services, Regulatory & White Collar Litigation Capabilities by Adding Four Lawyers in Litigation Team from Stroock

NEW YORK (December 11, 2023) - Seyfarth Shaw LLP is pleased to announce the addition of a highly regarded group of lawyers formerly with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP to bolster Seyfarth’s financial services, regulatory and litigation depth and deepen its white collar defense capabilities.

Partners Scott Morvillo and Ellen Murphy and counsel Nicole Lloret will be based in New York. Counsel Richard Morvillo is joining Seyfarth in its Washington, DC office.

The group focuses on SEC, criminal, and internal investigations, FCPA matters, trials, and appeals, and compliance issues, with particular depth in market abuse, securities and bank fraud matters involving the financial sector.

Their clients include financial institutions, funds, publicly held and privately held companies, accounting firms, investment advisors, boards of directors, officers and directors, investment bankers and other individuals.

“We are excited that this exceptional group of litigators has chosen to continue their distinguished careers at Seyfarth, where they can take advantage of our outstanding platform,” said James McGrath, national chair of the firm’s Litigation Department. “Market demand for complex litigation and regulatory work is extremely high. Adding these highly experienced attorneys deepens our bench of securities, financial services, high level investigations, and white collar litigators in New York and Washington.”

Seyfarth, with Scott Morvillo and Murphy, has now added six new partners from outside the firm in 2023 to its New York office.

“Seyfarth continues to expand its practice groups in New York and beyond. We warmly welcome this group of former Stroock attorneys who have chosen us as their new home,” said John Napoli, co-managing partner of Seyfarth’s New York office. Marc Gurell, the other co-managing partner of Seyfarth’s New York office, added that “Seyfarth’s collaborative culture continues to attract high performing talent across the spectrum.”

“We are thrilled that there are synergies between Seyfarth’s core practice groups and our practice and in the numerous clients we already share,” said Scott Morvillo. “We look forward to working with our new partners to expand mutual client relationships and develop new ones.”

“Seyfarth’s vast national and international platform provides us with significant opportunities to provide the best service to our clients and further strengthen and deepen our relationships with our clients,” said Ellen Murphy.

Scott Morvillo brings more than two decades of complex litigation experience to Seyfarth. He has represented corporations and high-profile individuals in criminal, regulatory, civil matters, and internal investigations. He primarily counsels businesses and executives in investigations, prosecutions and civil actions involving allegations of securities fraud, public corruption, bank fraud, accounting fraud, health care fraud, and violations of the criminal antitrust laws, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Morvillo, earlier in his career, served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where he investigated and tried a wide variety of criminal cases concerning RICO, narcotics, money laundering, bank fraud and credit card fraud.

He has been recognized as a leader in his field by Best Lawyers in America, and The International Who’s Who of Business Crime Defence Lawyers.

He earned his JD at Fordham University School of Law and his AB at Colgate University.

Ellen Murphy is an experienced litigator who has handled the full range of civil and criminal cases. Her practice is dedicated to advising financial institutions, public and private companies, boards, and executives in a wide array of regulatory, criminal, internal and civil investigations, and litigations. She conducts arbitrations and mediations for a variety of clients.

Murphy has represented clients in connection with investigations by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, State Attorney General Offices, State District Attorney Offices, and other regulatory agencies. She also conducts internal investigations for her clients and represents individual executives and employees in connection with those investigations.

She earned her JD, magna cum laude, from St. John’s University School of Law, and her BA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Richard Morvillo is a nationally recognized litigator in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement and other white collar matters. Morvillo co-chaired Stroock’s White Collar & Internal Investigations practice. He provides decades of experience covering more than 250 SEC investigations, many of which were very high-profile. He regularly handles Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases, securities-related white collar criminal matters, and private securities litigation.

A former branch chief with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Morvillo represents corporations, corporate executives, brokerage firms, investment advisers, accounting firms, auditors, law firms, hedge funds, and individual investors in connection with SEC, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), congressional, state attorney general and grand jury investigations, SEC litigation, and complex securities cases.

He has earned numerous recognitions as a leader in his field, including Chambers USA, Legal 500, The Legal Times, Benchmark Litigation, and The Washingtonian, where Morvillo was listed among the District of Columbia’s “Top Lawyers.” He was named Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year (DC) twice, once for Securities Litigation and once for Corporate Compliance.

Morvillo earned his JD at Fordham University School of Law and his BA at Colgate University.

Nicole Lloret concentrates her practice on white collar criminal defense and litigation relating to internal and government investigations. She has experience defending individuals charged with cybercrimes, as well as advising clients on technology-related matters, including software licensing agreements and developing data privacy policies. She has also defended clients charged under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Lloret received her JD from New York Law School and her BS from New York University.

About Seyfarth

With more than 900 lawyers across 18 offices, Seyfarth Shaw LLP provides top tier advisory, litigation, and transactional legal services to clients worldwide.

Contact: Tom Mariam, Director of Public Relations: 212-218-3366 or tmariam@seyfarth.com