By Casey Sullivan
NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Barbara Jones, the federal judge
who presided over the criminal trial of former WorldCom CEO
Bernard Ebbers, will join the law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder
later this month, according to a partner at the firm.
Jones, 65, will begin work on Jan. 15 at the New York office
of the Washington-based firm, where she will focus on advising
clients on internal investigations, corporate compliance and
monitorships, said Zuckerman partner Paul Shechtman. She will
join the firm as a partner, he said.
During her 17 years on the bench, Jones presided over a wide
range of cases, including the Ebbers trial and the 1997 trial of
Autumn Jackson, the woman convicted of trying to extort $40
million from Bill Cosby. Ebbers was sentenced in 2005 to 25
years in prison for orchestrating an $11 billion fraud that led
to WorldCom's bankruptcy.
Jones, a graduate of Temple University School of Law and
former prosecutor, did not immediately return a request for
comment on Friday.
Her move to Zuckerman, which was first reported by The New
York Times, marks the first time the judge will practice law in
a private setting.
"She reached the point where she wanted to turn a new
chapter in her life, and wanted to see what being part of the
private bar was like," said Shechtman, who helped recruit Jones.
The addition bolsters Zuckerman Spaeder's New York presence.
In September 2011, the firm brought on board Steven Cohen,
the former top aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo, to help expand the
New York office.
Other influential hires have included the September 2011
addition of Shechtman, a criminal defense attorney and former
federal prosecutor, and Andrew Tomback, a civil and criminal
litigator who joined from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley& McCloy.
Zuckerman Spaeder has more than 90 lawyers in four offices
on the East Coast. The firm came into the spotlight when one of
its partners, William Taylor III, helped defend former
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn against
charges that he sexually assaulted hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo.
The criminal charges were dropped in August 2011. A civil
lawsuit brought by the maid settled for an undisclosed amount
last month.
(A prior version of this story misspelled Bill Cosby's last
name.)
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