Timothy Heaphy

New York, NY, July 10, 2023 -- Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced that broker-dealer and securities regulatory lawyer Brian Baltz has joined the Firm as a partner in the Asset Management Department, where he is a part of the Regulatory and Enforcement practice. Brian is based in Willkie’s Washington, DC office. A former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney, Brian has significant experience with regulatory issues across broker-dealer, investment adviser and bank fiduciary businesses of financial institutions. “Brian is a skilled lawyer whose practice sits at the intersection of asset management, regulatory and enforcement matters,” said James Anderson, a partner in Willkie’s Asset Management Department and Chair of the Regulatory and Enforcement practice. “His experience helping broker-dealers and investment advisers navigate complex regulatory issues complements our broad platform serving virtually all types of participants in the asset management industry.” Brian’s practice focuses on regulatory and compliance advice to investment advisers, broker-dealers, bank fiduciaries, and municipal advisors. He regularly assists clients in developing practical approaches to address complex issues under the U.S. federal and state securities laws, OCC rules governing bank fiduciaries, and laws governing retirement account fiduciaries under ERISA and Section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Brian also guides clients in seeking regulatory relief and navigating examination and enforcement matters involving federal and state regulators. Brian served as special counsel in the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets, both in the Office of Chief Counsel and Office of Market Supervision. While at the SEC, he played an active role in the agency’s deliberations over the integration of broker-dealer and investment adviser regulations issues impacting retirement accounts, and the SEC’s adoption of regulations impacting municipal advisers. Brian was most recently a partner at McGuireWoods LLP. Brian commented: “Willkie is a market leader in asset management and I’m excited to join the Firm’s talented team of practitioners, adding to the regulatory and enforcement capabilities offered to clients across the asset management industry.” Brian’s addition follows approximately a dozen significant lateral hires and promotions in Willkie’s Washington, DC office since last year, including additions to the firm’s Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement, Antitrust & Competition, Willkie Digital Works, White-Collar Defense, and Litigation groups, among others. Most recently, Willkie’s Washington, DC office welcomed globally recognized antitrust litigation partner Katrina Robson in April, and prominent investigation and compliance leaders Timothy Heaphy and Soumya Dayananda in February. Willkie’s preeminent Asset Management Department leverages comprehensive subject matter experience and capabilities across all asset classes to advise virtually all types of participants in the asset management industry, including privately owned sponsors and investment managers, publicly-traded asset management firms, broker-dealers, insurance companies, wealth management platforms, and banks, among others. With more than 110 attorneys across seven offices in the U.S. and Europe, our Asset Management team advises on the full spectrum of investment management matters, including fund formations, investments, restructurings, fund financings, asset management M&A, secondaries transactions, liquidity and capital solutions, fund “adoptions,” and operational, compliance and regulatory issues. The group’s 250+ clients include some of the world’s most prominent asset management firms. ***************************************************** Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP provides leading-edge legal solutions on complex, business critical issues spanning markets and industries. Our approximately 1,200 attorneys across 13 offices worldwide deliver innovative, pragmatic and sophisticated legal services across approximately 40 practice areas. Learn more at www.willkie.com.

Jul 10

2 min

Willkie’s Washington, DC office was featured in a Law.com article focusing on its recent growth, wide range of practices, appeal to laterals and recent high-profile matters. The article highlights that the office has grown by approximately 40 percent over the past three years, including adding high-profile lateral partners this year, such as Investigations & Enforcement partners Timothy Heaphy and Soumya Dayananda, antitrust partner Katrina Robson and asset management partner Brian Baltz. Willkie’s Washington, DC office was launched over 40 years ago, but its recent growth has focused on areas of critical importance to our clients. Washington, DC office Managing Partner David Mortlock noted that Willkie is “[n]ot just providing small pieces of advice here and there, but really major investigations, major compliance issues, and both for the firm's corporate practice and as a destination practice for other clients that are coming to us for the D.C. practice." The article reports that some other major law firms have chosen to focus their Washington, DC offices on servicing institutional clients, while Willkie’s offering in the district is more broad and includes litigation, corporate and regulatory capabilities. Willkie has focused on establishing “destination practices” in Washington, DC, including in the areas of investigations and enforcement, crisis management and global trade and investment, among others. Michael Gottlieb, Washington, DC-based partner and member of Willkie’s Executive Committee, noted that Willkie is focused on providing full-service "destination practices" in Washington, DC and "not just providing service capabilities to clients in New York or other offices." He noted how Willkie has diversified its litigation practices in Washington, DC, now having capabilities across several areas, including communications, patent, insurance, class actions and more. The Washington, DC office’s growth is paralleled with Willkie’s overall growth, including opening four new offices in the past five years and a revenue increase of 13.1% to $1.38 billion in 2022. Read the full article here.

Aug 7

1 min

The U.S. Department of Justice may review the December 2025 closed-door deposition of former Special Counsel Jack Smith to explore whether Smith lied to Congress when he testified about his now-dismissed federal criminal cases against President Donald Trump, according to legal observers. Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahami, president of the Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers, said the Justice Department cannot prosecute Smith unless it has a “backdoor” theory unrelated to the U.S. Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021. Tuesday is the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, an incident where hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the halls of Congress seeking to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s alleged role in the Jan. 6 violence prompted Smith to pursue a criminal case charging Trump with attempting to overturn the 2020 election. “There is no basis to charge [Smith] criminally, so they would have to somehow get there another way,” Rahami said Monday in an interview. “There may be some civil remedies, but as far as criminal prosecution of a prosecutor, there is no basis to do so.” Rahami, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California and former counsel at O’Melveny & Myers, said the Trump administration could investigate whether Smith said anything untruthful to Congress to potentially bring a perjury case against Smith. Smith appeared before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 17, 2025, and defended his decisions to prosecute Trump for alleged election interference in Washington, D.C., and alleged mishandling of classified records in Florida. “I believe we had proof beyond a reasonable doubt in both cases,” Smith said in his deposition, according to a slightly redacted transcript and hours-long video of his sworn testimony released on Dec. 31, 2025. “I have no doubt that the president wants to seek retribution against me,” Smith added. “I will say I agree that this department wants to seek retribution against anybody who worked on cases against President Trump.” Criminal defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater described Smith’s deposition as a “sworn record for the history books.” “Jack Smith said in no uncertain terms that I believe that Donald Trump is going to come after me if he can,” Agnifilo said of Smith on the Legal AF podcast. “I thought that was a little chilling. I think what he is basically saying is, ‘I have nothing to hide. I didn’t do anything wrong. I am proud of what I did.’” Smith’s office secured separate indictments during the Biden administration alleging Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and mishandled classified records after leaving the White House in 2021 in violation of federal law. The United States v. Trump criminal cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ended after Trump won reelection to a nonconsecutive second term in 2024. The second Trump administration has fired career prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and pursued criminal cases against some of Trump’s political adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey who secured pretrial dismissal of his two-count indictment after pleading not guilty to perjury charges. 'We're Still Here, Proud to Represent Jack Smith' Covington & Burling partners Peter Koski and Lanny Breuer represented Smith during his congressional deposition. Trump issued a presidential memo last February suspending security clearances held by Koski and any other Covington attorney who represented Smith pro bono in Smith’s personal, individual capacity. “I just want to say for the record, we’re still here, proud to represent Jack Smith,” Koski told the House Judiciary Committee. Smith said he believes Trump signed the anti-Covington memo to “seek retribution” and “chill people from having an association with me.” Covington & Burling did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Timothy Heaphy, a Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner who served as chief investigative counsel for the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack, is expected to launch a boutique law firm in partnership with Smith and other former DOJ colleagues. “I have not worked in Big Law,” Smith said during his deposition on Capitol Hill. “I’ve been a public servant my whole career.” U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, served Smith with a testimonial subpoena for a deposition to question Smith about his former prosecutions of Trump. “Mr. Smith’s testimony established that the case against Trump was built largely on statements from his own close associates and fellow Republicans—people who, in Mr. Smith’s words, ‘put their allegiance to the country before the party,’” U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, said in a statement as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. “The only people ‘weaponizing’ the Justice Department are those who have turned it into a personal protection racket for Donald Trump,” Raskin added. “And Special Counsel Smith proved that in his testimony. The Republicans didn’t lay a glove on him.” Jay Bratt, a former DOJ attorney who worked on the Trump prosecutions, invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination during a May 2025 deposition before the House Judiciary Committee. Bratt is represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Michael Bopp and David Burns. Bratt’s counsel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “Jack Smith and his staff spent more than $50 million in taxpayer dollars to target President Trump—an egregious misuse of judicial authority for political ends and part of the prior administration’s unprecedented weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process,” the White House alleged in a fact sheet. “I am eyes wide open that this president will seek retribution against me if he can,” Smith said during his congressional deposition. A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jan 6

4 min

Retail landlord Simon Properties and luxury retailer Saks Global on Monday wrangled over the wording of a 2024 investment agreement as they asked a Texas bankruptcy judge to determine the fate of the leases of two Saks locations. Counsel for the parties made their closing arguments to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alfredo R. Perez after three days of hearings on Simon's request for a ruling that it can terminate the leases without the notice periods in the leases themselves. The parties are disputing whether a letter agreement Simon and Saks entered into when Simon invested $100 million in Saks in 2024 allows Simon to terminate the leases of a Saks location in Woodbury, New York, and a Neiman Marcus store in Palo Alto, California, effective Jan. 8, six days before Saks declared bankruptcy and a stay on contract terminations went into effect. Both parties acknowledged that the agreement granted Simon the right to terminate the Palo Alto lease and one other lease for "failure to perform" on either lease and that Saks had overdue lease payments, but they disagreed on whether the letter overrode notice of default and cure period provisions in the leases that would have given Saks 30 days from its Jan. 8 notice to make up the payments. At Monday's hearing, Simon counsel Robert Velevis argued the default provisions in the leases were not relevant, saying the agreement specifically allowed termination for "failure to perform" and not "default." "The letter agreement does not give a cure period," it said. Saks counsel Allyson Smith argued the letter agreement doesn't define "failure to perform" but the leases do, and that definition includes cure rights. The sole purpose of the clause in the letter agreement was to give Simon the right to terminate the leases for a default on a different lease, she argued. She also argued calling a default on the leases was a break with the parties' standard relationship. She said Simon had always accepted late payments, for example when Saks disputed a particular charge and delayed payment until the dispute was reconciled. "There has always been an amount technically outstanding," she said. Velevis argued this only meant that Simon had the right to terminate the leases anytime after the agreement was signed, and only invoked it now for "its own reasons." Smith claimed Simon learned of Saks' plans to file and "manufactured a default" in order to seize the leases and prevent Saks from selling them in its Chapter 11. Judge Perez reserved decisions on the issue. Simon Property Group is represented by Duston K. McFaul, Robert S. Velevis, Jeri Leigh Miller and Maegan Quejada of Sidley Austin LLP. Saks is represented by Kelli S. Norfleet, Kenric D. Kattner, Arsalan Muhammad, Kourtney P. Lyda and David Trausch of Haynes Boone and Debra M. Sinclair, Robin Spigel, Allyson B. Smith, Betsy L. Feldman, Jessica D. Graber, Jennifer J. Hardy, Ryan B. Bennett, Stuart R. Lombardi and Nathaniel G. Ward of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. The case is In re: Saks Global Enterprises LLC et al., case number 4:26-bk-90103, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Mar 2

2 min

Former special counsel Jack Smith is starting his own law firm with three former prosecutors who have investigated President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They include Timothy Heaphy, a Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner who served as chief investigative counsel for the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack. Heaphy confirmed news of the new venture late Tuesday to the National Law Journal. Also joining the firm as partners are Thomas Windom, a veteran federal prosecutor who worked with Smith on the Trump election interference case, and David Harbach, who also worked on the election interference case. The new firm will focus on trial and investigations work, Heaphy confirmed, declining to provide further details until the firm launches in January. Heaphy joined Willkie in 2023 after his time with the Jan. 6 House Select Committee. He has cochaired the firm’s investigations & enforcement practice. His departure comes after Willkie reached a pro bono deal with the Trump administration on April 1, when the firm promised $100 million in pro bono legal services to causes President Trump supports. A Willkie spokesperson wished Heaphy well. Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home. Smith is in the middle of a congressional inquiry himself now. Republican lawmakers have been probing Smith’s time as special counsel, arguing that the Biden administration had weaponized the Justice Department. Smith is expected to appear next week at the Capitol for a private testimony with the House Judiciary Committee. Windom has also come under attack this year from Republican lawmakers. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) referred Windom to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution after Windom declined to answer questions during a deposition with the committee. The new firm by Smith and others will join a cadre of other newly launched boutiques, including one started by two of Smith’s top deputies on the election interference case. Molly Gaston and J.P. Cooney, who worked on Smith’s team investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, launched Gaston & Cooney, a D.C.-based boutique focused on providing anti-corruption counseling to local and state governments, as well as congressional investigations and white-collar defense services. Nearly a dozen law firms have launched since the start of this year, including Dunn Isaacson Rhee, Lowell & Associates, DC Law Collective, Klubes Law Group, Washington Litigation Group and Civil Service Law Center, among others, which are already or aiming to take up high-stakes disputes work opposite the Trump administration.

Dec 10

2 min