Mayer Brown announced today that Adam S. Hickey joined the firm as a partner in its Cybersecurity & Data Privacy, National Security, and Global Investigations & White Collar Defense practices. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) with the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Security Division (NSD) and Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Adam will focus on cybersecurity investigations and related litigation; investigations and enforcement actions related to national security authorities like sanctions, export controls, and the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); and foreign investment security reviews (CFIUS and Team Telecom). Adam will be resident in the firm’s Washington DC and New York offices.
Adam brings more than 15 years of experience at the DOJ handling high-profile national security matters intersecting with the private sector. During his time at NSD, Adam established the Department’s national security cyber program, dedicated to combatting malicious cyber activity affecting the private sector and critical infrastructure, and he supervised the criminal investigation and charging of every national security cyber case for more than a decade. He was responsible for expanding DOJ’s role in assessing national security risk across hundreds of economic regulatory matters, often focusing on data security and data privacy risks, and he spearheaded reforms of the DOJ’s FARA enforcement program. As DAAG, Adam led investigations of foreign companies and governments and negotiated complex corporate resolutions, often in fraught geopolitical contexts.
During his time as Assistant United States Attorney for the SDNY, Adam focused on international narcotics trafficking, export control, terrorism and other national security investigations. He was a member of the Guantanamo Review Task Force and was one of the prosecutors who investigated and indicted five defendants accused of conducting the September 11 attacks. He also served briefly as Deputy Chief of Appeals.
“Adam’s distinguished track record at Main Justice and the SDNY makes him a unique and valuable addition to our cybersecurity and national security practices,” said Raj De, a member of the firm’s global Management Committee, leader of Mayer Brown’s global Cybersecurity & Data Privacy practice and co-leader of the National Security practice. “Companies are facing an unprecedented era of global risk. Our clients will greatly benefit from Adam’s experience as a senior Justice Department official who has guided some of our country’s most high-profile and cutting-edge security and enforcement matters.”
“Businesses are caught between global threats from certain governments, hackers and even their own employees, on the one hand, and increasing demands from federal regulators who see a nexus between our country’s national security interests and the private sector,” said Adam. “Companies need sophisticated counsel to navigate the shifting landscape of those threats while complying with an increasingly complex regulatory framework in the United States, and I am excited to combine my experience in federal government with the international platform and breadth of expertise that Mayer Brown offers.”
Adam’s arrival reflects Mayer Brown’s continued expansion of its enforcement, cybersecurity and national security capabilities in New York and Washington DC, including through the recent return of John J. Sullivan, the former Deputy Secretary of State and US Ambassador to the Russian Federation, who co-leads the firm’s National Security practice, and the arrival of Justin Herring, former Executive Deputy Superintendent of the Cybersecurity Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services.
“We are thrilled by the momentum of our DC office in attracting laterals from prominent public service posts,” said Liz Stern, the managing partner of Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office, referencing recent arrivals, including Ambassador Sullivan, Gail Levine and Christopher Leach from the Federal Trade Commission and Carl Risch from the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the Department of State.
“Adam’s enforcement experience, particularly involving data security and privacy issues provides an important nexus between our New York and DC capabilities,” said Matthew Ingber, the managing partner of Mayer Brown’s New York office.
