A group of six lawyers has left Bradley Arant Boult Cummings and joined Sheppard Mullin’s governmental practice.
Led by partner Gene Besen, the group includes partners Elisha Kobre and Scarlett Singleton Nokes, special counsel Stephen Moulton and associates Rebecca James and Courtlyn Ward. All are Dallas-based except Nokes, who is based in Nashville.
The move marks a strategic decision to grow their national presence and further specialize in white-collar defense, corporate investigations and healthcare enforcement capabilities, Besen said. The team’s practice had grown exponentially at Bradley and a move to Sheppard Mullin was seen as the best way to continue the growth trajectory, Besen said.
“The opportunity to get to a national practice platform and to grow the practice even bigger at Sheppard Mullin was just too much and too good to pass up,” Besen said.
The group brings immediate value to Sheppard Mullin clients, “particularly in navigating complex government investigations,” said Jonathan Aronie, co-leader of the firm’s governmental practice, who added that the firm has known Besen, Nokes and Kobre for years.
“Their expertise strengthens our nationally recognized white-collar practice, enabling us to deliver innovative and effective solutions to clients facing high-stakes investigations and complex civil litigation,” said Luca Salvi, Sheppard Mullin chair.
Besen, who admitted to being the first to reach out to Sheppard Mullin, said the group he brings meshed so well together at Bradley that the thought of continuing his practice without them was “not particularly appetizing.” The three partners balance each other out, Besen said, noting that his entire career has been in defense work while Nokes and Kobre each have more than a decade of experience as federal prosecutors.
“We work so closely together that when the decision to consider a change came, the only way to do it was to do it together as a group,” Besen said.
Besen predicts the presidential turnover will drive more investigations into corporate America, and his team wanted to position themselves to represent businesses and individuals who come under scrutiny. With offices in prime locations like New York, Chicago and California, Sheppard Mullin boasts more offerings and resources for the group’s existing clients who have expressed excitement about their move, Besen added.
“Having a brand name, boardroom name like Sheppard Mullin behind us gives us a much better ability to attract those types of representations without a doubt,” he said.
Besen most recently held the position of managing partner for Bradley’s Dallas office, where he advised corporations and individuals on navigating investigations, civil enforcement actions, and criminal proceedings initiated by the Department of Justice, U.S. Congress, and state attorneys general nationwide. He was also previously a partner at Gray Reed & McGraw and Dentons. Besen is a graduate of Brandeis University and obtained his law degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Prior to becoming a partner at Bradley, Kobre spent 11 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. He also previously worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell and in the Brooklyn County District Attorney’s Office. He clerked for the Honorable Leonard I. Garth in Newark, N.J., and the Honorable Thomas P. Griesa in New York. Kobre is an adjunct professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law. A graduate of Queens College, he has a doctorate from New York University and a law degree from Yale Law School.
Nokes was most recently the practice group leader of Bradley’s government enforcement team. Before her seven years at Bradley, Nokes spent 12 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Savannah, Nashville and Birmingham. She was a judicial law clerk for Judge Julia S. Gibbons on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Nokes graduated from Birmingham-Southern College and she obtained her law degree at Harvard Law School.
Besen said Kobre and Nokes were “two of the smartest, sharpest, most innovative-thinking partners I could possibly imagine.”
“Both are creative and thoughtful, and we challenge each other to think through what is best for our clients all the time,” Besen said, adding the group is “thrilled to get to work.”