Award-Winning SEC Trial Attorney Larry P. Ellsworth Joins Jenner & Block.

WASHINGTON -- Larry P. Ellsworth has joined Jenner & Block as a Partner in the Firm's Securities Litigation Practice. Most recently Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Trial Unit, Mr. Ellsworth is the 2004 winner of the prestigious Stanley Sporkin Award, the highest award for enforcement efforts at the SEC. Mr. Ellsworth brings more than 20 years of regulatory experience to the Firm. He will be located in Jenner & Block's Washington, D.C. office.

In awarding the Sporkin Award, the SEC recognized Mr. Ellsworth as one of the best trial counsel to ever represent it. During his 12-year career at the SEC, Mr. Ellsworth never lost a case, even though he carried one of the heaviest caseloads and tried a number of the SEC's most difficult cases.

For example, in 2004 Mr. Ellsworth completed a remarkable hat trick of superb litigation victories. Most notably, a litigation team under his supervision won a landmark decision following a 2-1/2 week trial in the auditor independence proceeding that resulted in the longest suspension ever of a major audit firm. Also, Mr. Ellsworth won - for the second time - a jury verdict in a difficult circumstantial case of insider trading. He additionally captained the team that won a precedent-setting summary judgment in a major market manipulation case against 55 defendants.

"We are delighted that Larry is joining us," said Managing Partner Gregory S. Gallopoulos. "As one of the nation's top securities trial lawyers, who has led many of the most important SEC enforcement actions over the past decade, Larry brings a wealth of experience and talent to our already strong securities and litigation practice."

Among Mr. Ellsworth's numerous victories in prior years at the SEC was an unprecedented order prohibiting joint trading arrangements among a major investment company's affiliates, where the company was charged with directing investment opportunities from mutual funds to a private retirement fund for management and employees. In the broker-dealer area, Mr. Ellsworth was a lead litigator for the Enforcement Division in the only temporary cease-and-desist proceeding ever brought. The result was the shutting down and liquidation of A.R. Barron and subsequent criminal conviction of all of its principal officers for fraud. Additionally, Mr. Ellsworth won summary judgments for fraud in some of the earliest cases finding joint and several liability among defendants, rejecting credits for business expenses in calculating disgorgement, and justifying suits against relief defendants.

Mr. Ellsworth also had an illustrious career before joining the SEC in 1993. From 1990 to 1993, he was a Vice President and Director of Litigation for a Fortune 50 Company. From 1985 to 1990, he was a partner in two prominent Washington, D.C., law firms, where he represented a number of financial institutions. From 1978 to 1985, he was head of Federal Court litigation regarding petroleum price and allocation controls at the U.S. Department of Energy. During his service at the Energy Department, he was the lead litigator in U.S. v. Exxon Corp., in which the Court ordered the largest judgment ever entered in a case brought by the United States -- over $2 billion. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ellsworth practiced public interest law and served on the staff of the Senate Ethics Committee for a special investigation of bribery and influence peddling in the U.S. Senate.

Mr. Ellsworth obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School where he was an editor on the Harvard Civil-Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review. He additionally obtained a graduate law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. His undergraduate degree is in Economics from Michigan State University.