Dechert Makes Key Litigation Hire; Welcomes First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to its Philadelphia Office

Dechert LLP announced today that Clare Putnam Pozos, former First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, has joined the firm’s litigation practice as a partner in the Philadelphia office. A native Philadelphian with deep ties to the community, Ms. Pozos will represent clients in a broad range of white collar, investigations, appellate, and privacy and cybersecurity matters.

As the First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Ms. Pozos served as the second-ranking official at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She previously served in several other leadership capacities, including as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Attorney, Chair of the Office’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and as a senior member of the Hiring Committee. During her time in leadership, Ms. Pozos oversaw the investigation and prosecution of cases involving a wide variety of federal crimes, including securities, commodities, insurance, health care, pandemic-related fraud, and other complex frauds, insider trading, public corruption, cybercrime, and asset forfeiture.

Prior to her appointment as First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Ms. Pozos was lead counsel in over 40 trials and 17 appeals, with a focus on investigating and prosecuting cases involving the dark web, cryptocurrency, cybercrime, and opioids. She received numerous Special Achievement Awards for her trial and investigative work, including recognition by the Office of National Drug Control Policy for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Outstanding Opioid Investigative Effort in both 2018 and 2019. Also, she was recently named among City & State’s 2021 “Pennsylvania 40 under 40.”

Ms. Pozos received an A.B. from Harvard, magna cum laude, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. She began her legal career as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Michael M. Baylson in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Ms. Pozos then spent two years as an associate at an international law firm, concentrating on political law and ethics investigations, before entering public service as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, first in Washington, D.C., and then in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“Clare is an accomplished trial lawyer, and we are thrilled to welcome her to Dechert,” said David N. Kelley, a global co-leader of the white collar and securities litigation practice of Dechert LLP. “She will be an enormous asset to our clients and our firm’s global investigations, white-collar defense, appeals, and privacy and cybersecurity practice groups, where she joins a number of talented and widely respected former federal prosecutors.”

Ms. Pozos added, “I’m excited by the opportunity to join Dechert’s superb litigation practice. I look forward to utilizing my extensive public sector experience to advise Dechert’s clients on their most high-stakes and complex litigation, investigations, and cybersecurity-related matters.”

Dechert’s global litigation practice is comprised of more than 350 lawyers across 21 offices in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, combining the knowledge and expertise of former government officials and law clerks, top litigators from top-ranked firms, and amazing homegrown talent.

Dechert is ranked among the top 30 firms for investigations by Global Investigations Review (2021) and in the top tiers for white collar crime in the UK and U.S. by The Legal 500 and Chambers (2022). The group has won a number of accolades, including: White Collar Practice Group of the Year by Law360; Conduct, Enforcement or Business Crime Team of the Year by The Lawyer Awards; Investigation Team of the Year by C5 Women in Compliance Awards; International Litigation and Disputes Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards; Best Provider Collaboration by American Lawyer; and Most Important Development of the Year (for the Airbus settlement) by Global Investigations Review Awards (2020).

About Dechert

Dechert is a leading global law firm with 22 offices around the world. We advise on matters and transactions of the greatest complexity, bringing energy, creativity, and efficient management of legal issues to deliver commercial and practical advice for clients.