Denis J. McInerney, the former chief of the Fraud Section at the Department of Justice, is returning to Davis Polk & Wardwell as a partner in the firm’s white collar criminal defense and investigations practice.
McInerney played a leadership role in Department of Justice investigations into the alleged manipulation of LIBOR and the foreign exchange market by various financial institutions around the world, and the preparation of A Resource Guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which was published in 2012.
McInerney started at Davis Polk as an associate in 1986, after having clerked for U.S. District Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy of the Southern District of New York from 1984 to 1986.
In 1989, he joined DOJ as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, ultimately serving as a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 1993 to 1994.
In 1994, McInerney served as an Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation with Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr.
He then returned to the firm in December 1994 and became a partner in 1997, where he remained until January 2010, when he was named Chief of the Fraud Section.
“We are delighted to welcome Denis back,” said Davis Polk managing partner Thomas Reid. “His integrity, judgment and experience, both as a high-level DOJ official overseeing some of the nation’s most important white collar cases and as a skilled defense attorney representing institutions and individuals in their most sensitive investigations and trials, will be a great asset to our world-class litigation and white collar criminal defense teams.”
McInerney said he was “very grateful that I was given the opportunity to return to the Department for these last four plus years to help lead a terrific group of prosecutors at Main Justice in Washington.”
“At the same time, I’m very glad to be home, not only with my family in New York, but with Davis Polk, a firm that is all about excellence, where I was fortunate to have practiced for 18 years,” McInerney said. “Returning to Davis Polk will give me the opportunity to work on some of the most important and interesting enforcement and regulatory matters in the country with an expanded and extremely talented litigation group.”