Milbank LLP is pleased to announce that Andrew Thomas, former Co-Chief of the Securities and Commodities Task Force at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), has joined the firm as a partner in New York.
“Andrew is widely regarded as one of the top prosecutors to come out of SDNY in recent years, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the firm,” said Milbank Chairman Scott A. Edelman. “His experience leading some of the country's most complex and high-profile securities and white-collar matters, combined with his versatility in both civil and criminal litigation, will be a tremendous asset to our clients and will further strengthen our preeminent Litigation & Arbitration Group.”
Mr. Thomas is a seasoned civil and criminal litigator who served as a federal prosecutor in SDNY for the past 11 years, including nine years on the Securities and Commodities Task Force, the specialized unit he ultimately led. As a prosecutor, Mr. Thomas investigated, charged and supervised hundreds of cases involving finance, markets and emerging technologies. At SDNY, he handled numerous trials and appeals, including notable insider trading, accounting fraud and market manipulation prosecutions, and routinely advised trial teams throughout the US Attorney’s Office when they confronted complex, high-stakes fraud trials.
Before joining SDNY, Mr. Thomas worked as a civil litigator in private practice and served as a law clerk for Judge Sidney H. Stein at SDNY and Judge Julio M. Fuentes of the Third Circuit.
“Andrew has remarkable trial abilities and a proven record of leading major investigations and prosecutions,” said George S. Canellos, global head of the Litigation & Arbitration Group. "His work at the intersection of securities enforcement, white collar defense and complex commercial disputes will add further depth to our team as clients face increasingly sophisticated litigation and investigations.”
Mr. Thomas is the latest addition to Milbank’s Litigation & Arbitration Group, which has one of the deepest benches of former government officials of any law firm. In recent years, the firm has significantly expanded its roster of powerhouse litigators and trial lawyers with the arrivals of Neal Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General of the United States; Colleen Roh Sinzdak, former Assistant to the Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice; Will Havemann, who previously served as Associate General Counsel of the US House of Representatives and as an attorney in the Civil Division’s Appellate Staff at DOJ; Gurbir S. Grewal, former Director of the Division of Enforcement of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Attorney General of the State of New Jersey; Olivia Choe, former SEC Chief Litigation Counsel; Josh Sterling, former Director of the Market Participants Division of the CFTC; James Weingarten, former Chief Trial Counsel for the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission; Nola B. Heller, former chief of two units at the US Attorney’s Office for SDNY; Richard Parker, former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition; and Grant Bermann, a former trial attorney at the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
“I had the opportunity to work with Andrew at SDNY, and I am thrilled to work together once again,” said partner Nola B. Heller, a member of the Litigation & Arbitration Group, and head of the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice.“His exceptional judgment and character, courtroom experience and strategic instincts will be invaluable to our clients and our team.”
“I am delighted to join Milbank and to partner with such an outstanding team of litigators,” said Mr. Thomas. “I look forward to working closely with my new colleagues on our clients’ most critical matters — both inside and outside the courtroom — and to contributing to the firm’s continued success.”
Mr. Thomas earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was awarded the John Fletcher Caskey Prize for trial advocacy, and his B.A. and B.S. from the University of Iowa, where he received the Hancher-Finkbine Medallion and graduated with highest distinction.
