Mayer Brown Adds Longtime National Security Official to Lead White Collar Practice

As the regulatory and enforcement landscape evolves, Mayer Brown on Tuesday said it has hired Ken Wainstein, a longtime federal law enforcement and national security official, to lead its global investigations and white-collar defense practice.

Wainstein has served in several government positions, including assistant attorney general for national security and homeland security adviser and most recently as undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.

At Mayer Brown, he will lead its defense practice from Washington, D.C. while also practicing as a member of its national security and congressional investigations practices.

Prior to his most recent stint in government, Wainstein was a partner at Davis, Polk & Wardwell for about five years.

The move comes as the Trump administration has enacted deep and widespread changes in law enforcement, including federal employee staffing cuts, halting new enforcement actions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and a shift in resources toward immigration enforcement, to name a few.

Management committee member Raj De said in an interview that uncertainty in the landscape doesn’t mean enforcement practices will suffer.

“I don’t think it’s that binary, because enforcement work encompasses a whole range of things,” said De, who also leads the firm’s cybersecurity & data privacy and national security practices. “There’s always going to be enforcement priorities in any landscape, and it’s a question of, ‘Do we have the resources and talent to address the enforcement priorities our clients will be facing?’”

Wainstein said he thinks that every administration has different priorities and that the agencies are generally able to adapt to them and move forward. He said though that, regardless of administration, he’s seen a steady uptick of enforcement in the national security space over the last two decades, and that, while they used to be viewed as niche, national security-related practices have come to require the “same, sustained focus” as others in the white-collar space.

“After 9/11, I think the federal government learned it could and should use the criminal laws, not only to enforce and punish wrongdoers but also as a legitimate tool of national security policy,” he said.

He added that one particular priority each administration has had in common is keeping sensitive technology secrets away from foreign adversaries. "That’s an area that will continue,” he said.

He said he chose Mayer Brown because of its “deep background” and expertise in congressional investigations. He also said the firm is “cutting edge” in terms of national security and white collar, mentioning “very high-level” work in areas like export controls, sanctions and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

“In the national security space, they’re an industry leader. They’re on the cutting edge,” Wainstein said. He and De mentioned partners such as Adam Hickey, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s national security division; Gina Parlovecchio, former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York and chief of the international narcotics and money-laundering section; and Timothy Keeler, who formerly served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and in the U.S. Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS, as members of a deep bench.

“You’ve got just tremendous talent and personnel, both in the white collar and security space,” Wainstein added.

Firm chair Jon Van Gorp, in a statement, said Wainstein’s experience is “the perfect complement to our growth strategy."

 

 

Reprinted with permission from the April 1st edition of The American Lawyer © 2025 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.