Latham & Watkins LLP

Nick McQuaid, a former Senior DOJ and White House official, and former co-head of the New York Litigation Department, leverages extensive experience at the highest levels of the federal government to represent clients in their most complex legal challenges.  Nick co-leads the firm’s Congressional Investigations Practice and is Co-Chair of Latham’s Washington, D.C. Litigation & Trial Department.

Nick, a former Acting Assistant Attorney General who led the US Department of Justice’s Criminal Division for the first six months of the Biden administration, draws on his experience both from government service and private practice to provide tested counsel to clients facing investigations involving:

• • The Department of Justice (DOJ)
  • Congress
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Other regulatory bodies

He skillfully leads internal investigations and advises senior company leaders and boards of directors on highly sensitive, bet-the-company matters. Before his most recent government service, Nick served as Co-Chair of Latham’s New York Litigation & Trial Department. Nick has also held roles as Deputy White House Counsel and as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.

As Acting Assistant Attorney General and then Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Nick helped lead the DOJ’s Criminal Division for over 20 months, overseeing more than 600 federal prosecutors investigating securities fraud, healthcare fraud, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. He also led the formation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and supervised its work.

During the Obama administration, Nick served for nearly four years in the White House Counsel’s Office, including as Deputy White House Counsel. In that role, he handled sensitive litigation and investigations, dealing extensively with congressional committees on high-profile investigations, including inquiries into the Benghazi attacks and the Affordable Care Act’s implementation. He also prepared numerous senior White House staff and cabinet officials for congressional hearings and other forms of testimony. Nick liaised with the DOJ and advised the President and senior White House staff on risk management, ethics, and compliance matters. In addition, he worked closely with officials at the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Before working in Washington, Nick served for many years as an Assistant US Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he successfully tried numerous cases to verdict, as well as briefed and argued several appeals in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Nick has also prosecuted complex criminal organizations and other significant cases involving wire, bank and securities fraud, and money laundering.

Nick serves on Law360’s White Collar Editorial Board.

Nick clerked for US District Judge Denise Cote of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then for US Circuit Judge Robert Katzmann of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.