Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced that Timothy Heaphy and Soumya Dayananda will join the Firm as partners in the Litigation Department, where they will be members of the Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement Practice. Tim and Soumya will be based in Willkie’s Washington, DC office.
Tim and Soumya have over 40 years of combined public service experience, with each most recently holding a leadership position on the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate The January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. As Chief Investigative Counsel to the committee, Tim created and implemented the comprehensive investigative plan which guided the day-to-day work of the committee. He conducted numerous depositions and helped craft the committee’s hearings and report. As a Senior Investigative Counsel to the committee, Soumya led a team of attorneys investigating the law enforcement and military response on January 6. She too conducted numerous interviews and provided important contributions to the committee’s findings. Together, they have extensive experience in complex government investigations, compliance, crisis management and white-collar litigation. At Willkie, Tim will serve as Co-Chair of the Firm’s Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement Practice.
“We are thrilled to welcome Tim and Soumya to our growing Washington, DC office, which now includes over 130 lawyers focused on helping our clients navigate novel and complex litigation, regulatory, and government enforcement matters,” said David Mortlock, Managing Partner of Willkie’s Washington, DC office. “Tim and Soumya are respected senior government lawyers whose experience, including on Capitol Hill and in the Justice Department, will complement our global team of litigation and investigations attorneys.”
William Stellmach, Co-Chair of Willkie’s Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement Practice, commented: “We have a premier investigations and defense team with an unmatched track record advising clients on their most complicated, high stakes matters. Tim and Soumya’s additions will further deepen our group with their decades of experience managing high-profile government investigations in congressional investigations, multi-agency enforcement, and compliance matters.”
In addition to his work managing the January 6 investigation, Tim previously served as University Counsel to the University of Virginia, where he supervised a team of attorneys providing legal advice to the university’s academic division and health system. He also served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, where he led a broad range of significant investigations and cases involving national security, financial and health care fraud, public corruption, money laundering and civil rights, among others. He was also a partner and White Collar Defense and Internal Investigations Practice chair at prominent law firms in Washington, DC and Virginia.
Prior to her role on the January 6 committee, Soumya was a Senior Investigative Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, led by Senator Gary C. Peters. She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in leadership positions in the International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York. She began her career as an Assistant D.A. in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Tim commented: “Willkie’s extraordinary reputation, global reach, and tradition of providing outstanding client service across litigation, transactional and government-facing regulatory practices make the firm a great fit for our investigations and compliance platform.”
“Today’s investigations and crises are complex and multi-faceted, requiring subject matter experience across a wide variety of practice areas, and we are thrilled to be joining a firm that offers such an extraordinary bench of talent,” Soumya added.
Willkie’s Litigation Department includes approximately 250 lawyers worldwide who represent major U.S. and non-U.S. companies and individuals in complex commercial and class-action litigation. The Department has extensive experience conducting internal corporate investigations and other corporate matters, and regularly represents companies and individuals in investigative and enforcement proceedings brought by federal and state regulatory agencies. Our Compliance, Investigations & Enforcement Practice is comprised of an elite international team, joining up the experience of litigators in the U.S., UK and Continental Europe to provide an integrated platform of compliance, investigations and enforcement services offering a comprehensive approach to complex regulatory and criminal matters.
