Robert Khuzami. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
Opting against Big Law after his latest high-profile stint in government, Robert Khuzami has joined asset manager and investment bank Guggenheim Partners, one of his former clients.
Khuzami, a former director of the SEC's enforcement division, Kirkland & Ellis partner and senior in-house lawyer at Deutsche Bank, was most recently the right-hand man to U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan.
Guggenheim Partners announced Tuesday morning he was joining the firm, effective immediately, as a managing partner and chief legal officer. Guggenheim said Khuzami will join the senior leadership group that manages Guggenheim and guides its future growth. He will focus on Guggenheim's "strategic and business activities while also supervising the firm's legal, regulatory and compliance activities," the firm said.
Khuzami did not respond to a request for comment.
Discussions over Khuzami's next move have been swirling in the business and legal community this summer. Privately, sources said this summer that he was not likely to go back to a law firm.
After a high-profile career at the SEC, Khuzami from 2013 to 2018 was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, which had reportedly recruited him after a bidding war among big firms. At Kirkland, he advised multiple financial services firms, including the investment arm of Guggenheim Partners, according to a financial disclosure.
Khuzami reported earning $11.1 million in Kirkland partnership income in about a year's span, according to the disclosure, released in 2018 when he left Kirkland to join the Southern District of New York as a deputy U.S. attorney to Berman.
