Two A&O Shearman partners, David Esseks and Gene Ingoglia, have left the firm’s New York office to set up their own litigation boutique.
Writing on LinkedIn, Esseks said the firm – known as Esseks Ingoglia – would specialise in trials, high-stakes litigation, investigations and white-collar defence.
Esseks is a former federal prosecutor who led the global litigation and white-collar and investigations practices at Allen & Overy from October 2007 until the firm’s 2024 merger with Shearman & Sterling to become A&O Shearman.
Esseks said that he and Ingoglia had founded the firm to deliver “their brand of fierce advocacy to clients in a nimble and flexible manner”. The move was positively received by their former colleagues, many of whom wished them well on social media.
From 1994 to 2007, Esseks served as an assistant US attorney (AUSA) for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and was the chief of the office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, one of Wall Street’s most significant federal enforcement positions.
There, he supervised a team of 20 prosecutors and coordinated fraud investigations with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and FINRA, rising through the ranks having clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
For his part Ingoglia has been a litigator for almost 30 years, including nine years as a federal prosecutor. He joined Allen & Overy as a partner in 2017, having spent the preceding four years at an independent law firm, Morvillo.
Earlier, he worked at Dechert following a team move from legacy firm Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, where he spent six years after completing his training at Wilkie Farr & Gallagher.
Like many similar Wall Street investigations partners, he also worked as an AUSA for the SDNY and was a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit, which overlapped with Esseks’s leadership stint at the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.
During his time as an AUSA, Ingoglia represented the US government in the trial and conviction of former SAC Capital portfolio manager Mathew Martoma, in the largest insider trading scheme ever charged. He also led the investigation in the so-called ‘London Whale’ case concerning allegations of mismarking and obtained convictions for deliberately overstating the value of certain real estate-backed securities arising out of the financial crisis, products later popularised by the movie The Big Short.
The duo’s exit continues a stream of more than 100 legacy Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling partners that have left since the merger between the firms was announced in May 2023, including dozens that have left as part of post-merger cuts.
New York has been particularly affected, with at least 25 partners exiting since the merger announcement according to American Lawyer. Among them were former Shearman & Sterling co-managing partner George Casey, who defected to Linklaters at the start of last year at the helm of a six-strong M&A team.
To be sure, there have been moves in the other direction, with the firm recently hiring several partners in New York to strengthen key areas. Restructuring partner Ned Schodek joined in May from Schulte Roth & Zabel, while capital markets partner Michael Kim joined the month before from Morgan Stanley.
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