Swain Wood, former First Assistant Attorney General of North Carolina, rejoins Morningstar Law Group to lead the new practice.
Morningstar Law Group has launched a new, national practice focused on helping clients navigate the complex legal and political challenges associated with government investigations, negotiation, and litigation, including matters involving state Attorneys General and other government entities.
The practice is led by attorneys with extensive experience resolving high-impact disputes involving national, state, and local players. Swain Wood, who served as the First Assistant Attorney General of North Carolina, supervising the civil, criminal, multistate, and appellate legal work of the Department of Justice under Josh Stein since 2017, has rejoined Morningstar as a partner and will chair the practice.
“Our goal is to help our clients resolve government-related disputes in a practical, efficient, and lasting way,” Wood said. “Serving the people of North Carolina as First Assistant Attorney General has been the honor of a lifetime. I’m thrilled now to be back at Morningstar, and I’m excited about building on the enormous experience and well-earned respect Morningstar’s lawyers have built with government actors at all levels.”
While in the Attorney General’s office, Wood was lead national negotiator for the states in the multi-billion-dollar national opioid settlements with multiple Fortune 50 companies in the New York Times called “one of the most complicated and gargantuan legal battles in American history.” He also directed North Carolina’s investigation and litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul for marketing to children; and negotiated the state’s coal ash clean-up agreement with Duke Energy.
“As a national leader in multistate attorney general investigations and litigation, Swain brings tremendous experience to the table. He’s negotiated multi-billion deals on behalf of the government against some of the biggest companies in America, and is intimately familiar with how clients can effectively manage and resolve disputes stemming from government investigations litigation,” said Mack Paul, a founding partner at Morningstar. Morningstar attorneys regularly assist clients with a variety of other government disputes. This experience includes working with coastal communities dealing with state enforcement of regulations in the face of sea-level rise, assisting multi-family housing developers in addressing local governments’ attempts to restrict urban development, and representing pro-democracy organizations in challenging voting restrictions and partisan gerrymandering.
