Zuckerman's New York office is now set to compete with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Shearman & Sterling; and Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, and others for complex, high-end litigation and investigation matters, Cohen said.
The 90-lawyer firm was founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C. Recently, D.C.-based partner William Taylor represented the former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in criminal and civil actions after a hotel maid accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office eventually dropped the criminal charges. Strauss-Kahn and the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, reportedly reached a settlement in the civil case.
Hormozi, who joined Kirkland in September 2011, served as the special deputy chief of staff for litigation to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, where she worked with Cohen. After leaving the attorney general's office, she took over as chair of the former state Commission on Public Integrity.
She also spent six years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District, working primarily on organized crime and racketeering cases. She prosecuted the so-called "Mafia Cops" matter, a racketeering case involving two corrupt former police detectives. She argued and won the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Hormozi said she was very happy at Kirkland, but once Jones joined the firm, Hormozi said, "It was like, 'Hmm, I can't say no. I'm going to miss my chance.'"
The work at Zuckerman is "right up my alley," she said. "It's people I adore and I think they're brilliant."
Hormozi said she will bring some work with her to Zuckerman, including the special master position in a New York City firefighter discrimination case where she helps oversee damages for victims, United States v. City of New York, 07-2067. Three others are also appointed special master, including Cohen.
Cohen said he looks for colleagues who would best fit the firm's culture, not necessarily someone who brings a ready book of business, like Jones, who will focus on monitorships and internal investigations and compliance work.
"It doesn't matter whether she comes to you with business or not, she's going to develop business," Cohen said. "If you're doing an internal investigation, where the credibility of the investigator is ultimately going to be crucial to the regulatory or prosecutorial agency, who could be better than Barbara Jones?"
"Somebody can come to you with $10 million worth of business and if the fit isn't right and they join you, that $10 million worth of business is going to slip away from you, or they may not be happy, it may not work, after two years they may leave," Cohen said. "But if you have the right person, and it's the right fit, and you support them in the right way, it will work out, the business will come."
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