April 6, 2004

THE DAILY JOURNAL

By Liz Valsamis

LOS ANGELES – Health care lawyer Russell Hayman, a former federal prosecutor and past chief of staff at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, has joined McDermott, Will & Emery as a partner in its Los Angeles trial department.

Hayman, whose first day was April 2, was previously a partner with Latham & Watkins, where over the last 10 years he built-up a $5 million practice. Hayman represents health care companies in litigation, government investigations and involuntary disclosures. He declined to name clients. “My practice really targets the intersection between white-collar crime and health care,” Hayman said. “And that’s why McDermott is such a perfect fit for my practice.”

Hayman’s varied resume includes international criminal defense. While at Latham & Watkins, Hayman was tapped by the Croatian government to defend Croatian general Tihomar Blaskic, who prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia charged for assaults that left Muslim civilians dead in Bosnia. The general was convicted in early 2000 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Hayman is handling the appeal.

It was Hayman’s experience handling international criminal cases in a previous post at the Los Angeles U.S. attorney’s office that led to the Blaskic case, he said.

While serving as the deputy chief of the office’s criminal division, Hayman tried one of two cases in “Operation Polar Cap,” which targeted 40 individuals in an international money-laundering case. Hayman successfully prosecuted 20 defendants who each received more than 500 years in prison in 1990.

Hayman began his career with the Department of Justice in 1983 as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. He became chief of the criminal section in 1987. In 1990, Hayman moved to Washington, D.C., where he spent his last four years at the department as chief of staff at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which employs 10,000 people. In 1994, he left for Latham & Watkins.

Hayman was a member of Latham & Watkins’ litigation and health care groups. Combined, the firm employs 115 health care and litigation lawyers in Los Angeles.

“Russ is a terrific lawyer and McDermott is a good firm,” Los Angeles managing partner Martha Jordan said. “We wish him well.”

At McDermott Will, Hayman joins 31 lawyers in the Los Angeles trial department. The 84-lawyer office is also home to 19 health care attorneys.

“It’s a perfect fit in terms of our practice areas and his developed expertise,” Los Angeles partner-in-charge Gordon Greenberg said. “We will always strive to build with the right people. There can be no question that Russ is the right person at the right time.”

Chicago-based McDermott Will employs 1,000 lawyers and has offices in Boston; Miami; New York; Irvine; Palo Alto; San Diego; Washington, D.C.; Rome; London; Brussels; Belgium; Milan, Italy; Munich, and Dusseldorf, Germany.