Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Randall Jackson, who spent the last three years at Boies Schiller Flexner with several of his former federal prosecutor colleagues, has moved his practice to Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Jackson, 40, joined Willkie as a litigation partner this week in its white-collar defense and compliance, investigations and enforcement groups.

Jackson in 2015 left the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office, where he prosecuted several high-profile matters, including winning the convictions of Bernard Madoff's five key aides, the guilty plea of “Times Square Bomber” Faisal Shahzad and the conviction of New York City Council member Larry Seabrook on public corruption charges.

At the time he joined Boies in 2015, Jackson said he was drawn to the firm because he was reuniting with Matthew Schwartz and John Zach, who also prosecuted the six-month “Madoff Five” trial for the U.S. Attorney's Office, as well as former prosecutors Peter Skinner and Andrew Michaelson.

Those SDNY alumni remain at Boies. “My former colleagues at Boies are fantastic litigators and we continue to maintain a great relationship, but it was an exciting opportunity [to join Willkie] and some of the team at Willkie also includes people who have experience at the U.S. Attorney's Office and at different areas of government,” Jackson said, noting, for instance, Michael Schachter, a former Southern District prosecutor who joined Willkie in 2005.

Jackson said he was attracted to Willkie for its culture, its leadership, its talent and the fact that its attorneys “work extremely well together.”

“Willkie Farr has a really amazing culture of attorneys who are incredibly collaborative” and who work together across the globe on complex matters, Jackson said. He added that he's not contrasting that with his previous experience at Boies and the two firms are “just designed differently.”

Jackson declined to say whether he spoke with other firms too after joining Boies.

While at Boies, Jackson represented HSBC in a trial over a retaliation claim by a former executive; represented CIT Bank in a qui tam suit; defended Point72 Asset Management, formerly known as SAC Capital, in a civil insider-trading suit; and represented plaintiffs in a General Motors ignition switch trial.

Schachter, the co-chair of Willkie's 13-partner white-collar defense practice, said he stayed in touch with Jackson for years after trying a case against him, aware of Jackson's reputation in the defense bar. “When I felt we had a need for a white-collar defense attorney,” he said, “he was on the top of my list.”

In a statement, Boies managing partner Jonathan Schiller said he wishes Jackson success and thanked him “for his great work for the firm's clients.”