Former Willkie Farr & Gallagher counsel pleads guilty, agrees to cooperate in M&A insider trading case
A former Willkie Farr & Gallagher attorney has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government in a multimillion-dollar mergers-and-acquisitions insider trading case. (Photo from Shutterstock)
A former Willkie Farr & Gallagher attorney has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government in a multimillion-dollar mergers-and-acquisitions insider trading case.
Bloomberg Law reports that in documents unsealed Wednesday, former Willkie counsel Gabriel Gershowitz and eight others have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the authorities.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against 30 people, accusing them of stealing and using insider information from nearly 30 M&A deals handled by some of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the country.
The defendants have been charged with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering. Several of the defendants have been hit with additional charges, accusing them of obstructing justice and/or making false statements to law enforcement officials.
According to the DOJ’s public statement, Nicolo Nourafchan, a 2011 graduate of Yale Law School who worked at several Am Law 100 firms from 2013 to 2023, is accused of accessing his firms’ internal computers and looking at confidential documents on M&A that matters he did not work on. The government then maintains that allegedly he passed the information to a former classmate and fellow attorney, and the two then recruited others to join their scheme.
Bloomberg Law reports that Gershowitz actually pleaded guilty in February 2025, with prosecutors agreeing to a sentencing recommendation of two years in prison. His sentencing is currently scheduled for November. According to Bloomberg Law, counsel for Gershowitz did not respond to a request for comment.
“Willkie is aware that a former employee is alleged to have engaged in conduct that would constitute a severe violation of our clear and well-defined compliance policies, which we take seriously and enforce across the firm,” the firm said in a statement. “There are no allegations of wrongdoing against the firm, which has and will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation of this matter.”
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Topics: Career & Practice
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