Williams and Connolly Hires Disgraced UBS General Counsel

While some may have expected attorney David Aufhauser to be seen in the halls of Williams & Connolly as a client but it appears that he has now been embraced as a partner. It appears that involvement in an insider trading scandal is not a barrier to career advancement. The former general counsel and managing director for UBS has joined the firm after agreeing not to practice law for two years due to the alleged insider trading. In the meantime, the shunning of Alberto Gonzales by both law firms and former colleagues continues.

Aufhauser is a former general counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, who was implicated in the UBS insider trading scandal. Last October, he settled charges with New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo for a $6.5 million fine and agreed not to practice law in New York for two years.

Aufhauser was accused of trading in the midst of an auction rate securities crisis. According to the settlement, Aufhauser was riding on an Amtrak Acela trial from from New York to Washington, D.C., when he read an e-mail sent that day by UBS’s chief risk officer describing problems with the UBS’s auction rate securities market. Within minutes, Aufhauser sent an e-mail to his financial adviser and told him to sell all of his auction rate securities.

For the Aufauser story, click here.

In the meantime, Alberto Gonzales admits that law firms are not lining up to hire him and that even President Bush has not reached out to him, here. When asked about the lack of a job, Gonzales responded: “Listen, I’ve had some interest and I’ve had some discussions, but there has been no offer made. In a tough economic climate, I can understand why a company or a firm would want to make sure that the investigations are complete and there is no finding of wrongdoing before they make a hiring decision.”

It appears, however, that his successor Eric Holder is structuring a reported investigation to shield Gonzales and others from war crimes prosecutions, here.