Securities Litigators Richard Swanson and Veronica Rendon Join Arnold & Porter LLP's New York Office

NEW YORK, April 11, 2005 – The international law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP announced today that securities litigators Richard Swanson and Veronica Rendon have joined its New York office as partners.

“Richard Swanson and Veronica Rendon have a top-notch securities litigation and enforcement practice,” said Arnold & Porter Chairman Michael Sohn. “They have a proven track record in this area of increasing importance to our clients and their skills will complement our recently expanded securities enforcement group in Washington."

“They will boost our New York capabilities in this practice area,” John Willett, head of Arnold & Porter’s New York office. “We have significantly expanded and diversified our practice in New York this year. The addition of Richard and Veronica adds depth to the securities litigation capacity we have in New York."

Swanson and Rendon represent accounting firms, broker/dealers, issuers, directors, and officers as well as private equity funds in securities and white-collar litigation and in regulatory and transactional matters. Swanson has tried over 40 cases in the past decade and regularly counsels clients on disclosure, fiduciary and compliance issues, as well as handling internal investigations, and corporate transactions.

Swanson was co-chair of his former firm’s corporate and securities litigation group. His practice focuses on securities litigation, SEC enforcement, and corporate counseling. In securities litigation, Swanson has handled Rule 10b-5 class actions, derivative suits, partnership cases, securities cases involving public offerings and private placements, insider trading cases, and liability and malpractice actions for accountants, lawyers, and directors. He is chair of the American Law Institute’s annual seminar on Accountant’s Liability Litigation and its Sarbanes-Oxley Institute and past chair of the New York State Bar Association’s committees on Securities and Federal Legislation. He graduated from Harvard Law School.

Rendon has been in private practice as a commercial litigator on the West and East coasts. Her practice has focused on commercial litigation with a concentration on securities, professional liability, and commercial and financial transactions. In securities, she has handled 10b-5 class actions, accountant and auditor liability matters, partnership disputes, minority shareholder disputes, insider trading investigations and litigations, internal investigations and corporate takeover matters. She graduated from the University of California Hastings College of Law.

The expansion of Arnold & Porter's New York office includes the addition of eight partners in January, who are well-known litigators and transactional lawyers with diverse fields of specialization, along with a top-tier hedge funds practice. This expansion is part of a larger strategic expansion of core practice areas which have included a group of six securities enforcement lawyers, led by Michael D. Trager, who joined the firm on January 18; John D. Hawke, former head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who returned to the firm's financial institutions practice in November; and top securities and commercial litigator H. Peter Haveles, Jr., who joined the New York office last March.