McDermott Will & Emery has added former EY general counsel Ron Hauben in New York to co-head its accounting defence practice. 

Hauben has joined McDermott’s litigation group as a partner from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which he joined at the end of 2021 to help launch its accounting defence team.  

Before that he spent nearly eight years as Americas vice chair and general counsel at EY, which saw him lead a legal team of more than 200 professionals and oversee the handling of corporate, litigation and regulatory matters, as well as risk and crisis management. Earlier in his career he was also GC at rival accountancy giant PwC. 

McDermott highlighted Hauben’s “extensive knowledge” of the legal, regulatory and business factors affecting the accounting profession. He has joined the firm amid increased scrutiny of accounting firms by the SEC and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the US, as well as growing litigation risk from privacy and employment claims. Hauben’s former firm EY agreed to pay a record $100m to the SEC last summer amid charges that dozens of its audit staff cheated on an ethics exam and misled investigators.

Steven Scholes, global head of McDermott’s litigation practice group, said Hauben would be “an incredible asset” to the firm’s clients as it counsels them through ongoing changes to the accounting industry. 

“His successful track record of leading complex litigation will help us guide clients in their most challenging situations,” he added. 

Hauben provides legal services to accounting firms covering regulatory enforcement, litigation defence, corporate governance and advice on risk, crisis management and professional practice issues. 

“I’m thrilled to join McDermott and leverage my previous industry and in-house experience to defend accounting firms and their professionals,” Hauben said.

At McDermott he will work in a litigation team that includes more than 550 lawyers globally. Lawyers from the accounting defence team have defended clients including Bernie Madoff, Enron, Adelphia and Stanford.