Seasoned D.C. Litigator joins White Collar Team at Morgan Lewis

—Former federal prosecutor and counsel to defendant in Abramoff scandal further strengthens firm’s national white collar practice—

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 14, 2007: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is pleased to announce that Barbara “Biz” Van Gelder has joined the firm as a partner in the Litigation practice, resident in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. A former federal prosecutor, Ms. Van Gelder is well respected for her ability to steer clients through the gamut of white collar proceedings—from congressional investigations to civil qui tam actions to administrative hearings and criminal litigation. She has served as counsel to such high-profile clients as David Safavian, the former Bush administration official implicated in the Abramoff scandal and former FDA Administrator Lester Crawford.
 
“As the traditional boundaries of criminal and civil enforcement continue to expand, Biz’s ability to offer experience and leadership on some of the most complex white collar situations further enhances an already thriving practice,” said James D. Pagliaro, head of Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. “We are delighted to have Biz join us in Washington, where she has honed the skills to assist our clients on a wide range of white collar needs.”

Washingtonian magazine named Ms. Van Gelder a “top criminal defense lawyer,” someone to call if “you find yourself drawn into an awkward congressional investigation, or worse, a grand-jury investigation by the Justice Department or the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

Morgan Lewis’s Litigation Practice consists of a 700-litigator contingent across 18 offices, and its members’ creativity, sophistication, and cross-practice capabilities have resulted in a mounting number of calls from Fortune 100 firms. Ms. Van Gelder will join a Corporate Investigations and White Collar team that already includes the former head of the Justice Department’s Enron Task Force; 10 former assistant U.S. attorneys; former assistant district attorneys; and former high-ranking attorneys from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.

Ms. Van Gelder’s practice will focus on white collar litigation and healthcare litigation, including representing clients in congressional investigations, criminal fraud investigations and qui tam, false claim, civil RICO, and employment litigation. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Van Gelder was a partner and head of the white collar litigation group at a national law firm in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, she served for more than 14 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in both the criminal and civil divisions.

About Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Morgan Lewis is a global law firm with more than 1,300 lawyers in 22 offices located in Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Harrisburg, Houston, Irvine, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Princeton, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. For more information about Morgan Lewis or its practices, please visit us online at www.morganlewis.com.