Baker McKenzie has made two partner hires in the US as part of the firm’s broader cybersecurity and data privacy expansion.

The new recruits include former Manhattan District Attorney’s Office bureau chief Liz Roper and intellectual property, tech transactions and privacy lawyer Cynthia Cole, who joins from Baker Botts. Roper joins the firm’s North American litigation and government enforcement and global disputes practice in New York, while Cole joins the firm’s transactional group in Palo Alto. Roper’s arrival follows the hiring of former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who joined Bakers at the start of the year as global chair of its cybersecurity practice. 

Vance said: “I worked closely with Liz for many years in the DA’s Office and she is an exceptional practitioner. As clients look for guidance on investigations and sensitive business matters, Liz will be their first call. Her collaborative nature and broad expertise in the investigation and litigation of cybercrime fits squarely within our group’s needs.”

Roper spent more than 15 years at the Manhattan DA’s Office, most recently leading its cybercrime and identity theft bureau, overseeing investigations and prosecutions related to online financial crime including card fraud, money laundering, ransomware attacks and cryptocurrency theft.

Cole, meantime, spent more than five years at Baker Botts, where she was deputy corporate departmental chair in its San Francisco and Palo Alto offices. Prior to that, she worked in a number of in-house roles, including as GC and interim CEO of Spectra7 Microsystems, head of legal at Console Connect, legal consultant at Cisco Systems and GC of the Flexitallic Group in France. Cole began her career in private practice at Morrison Foerster. Her practice focuses on IP, tech and cybersecurity, advising clients on cross-border IP and data-driven transactions.

Leif King, head of Bakers’ transactional group in California, said: “[Cole] is an established and accomplished lawyer who will immediately provide us with the depth of knowledge we need in the technology transactions space.” 

Cole is the latest addition to the firm’s transactions team following the arrival of corporate M&A partner Matthew Jacobson in Palo Alto from Ropes & Gray earlier this month.