White collar defense lawyers Henry F. Schuelke III and Lawrence H. Wechsler have joined Blank Rome LLP, bolstering the Philadelphia-based firm’s government investigations practice with two well connected Washington, D.C., lawyers.

The white collar litigation boutique the two helped to run for more than 30 years, Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler, has closed, the firm announced ^[1] on its website. The boutique’s other name partner, N. Richard Janis, will become a partner ^[2] in the Washington, D.C., office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP.

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Hank Schuelke (Getty Images)

“[W]e have reluctantly reached the conclusion that the need to accommodate differing goals and time commitments for the remainder of our careers, as well as a desire to ensure that all of our employees are well situated in the coming years, requires us to shutter Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler effective April 30, 2012,” the partners wrote on their website.

Schuelke, known as Hank, was most recently in the news as the special investigator ^[4]for U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of the botched Sen. Ted Stevens prosecution.

Wechsler represented the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, known as BCCI, in a massive money laundering investigation in the 1980s.

The pair’s list of representations includes many of the highest profile corporate and political cases since the 1980s, including accounting scandals at Adelphia Communications, Enron Corporation and WorldCom; in addition to the impeachment of President Clinton and the Iran-Contra affair.

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Offices of the now-shuttered Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler

They will be joined at Blank Rome by colleagues William B. Shields , who assisted Schuelke in the Stevens investigation, and Ariel S. Glasner. Shields will join as a counsel and Glasner as an associate.

Early in their careers, Schuelke and Wechsler each spent around eight years as Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the District of Columbia.

“When I joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office as a fledgling prosecutor 35 years ago, I looked up to Hank and Larry as the top trial lawyers in the office,” Blank Rome partner Jerry D. Bernstein, head of the firm’s white collar criminal defense and investigations group, said in a statement. “We have remained friends over the years, and I am thrilled to work with them again.”

Schuelke also has served as General Counsel to The Autism Society of America, Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, and as a member of the Committee on Grievances for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Blank Rome said in an announcement.

Wechsler has served as a member of the executive committee and president of The Assistant U.S. Attorneys Association for the District of Columbia, as well as a lecturer for the American University Washington College of Law and the George Washington University Graduate School of Forensic Sciences.

Joining Janis at Manatt is Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler associate Jennifer Sincavage, office manager Janice Buzard and administrative assistant Soni Murray.

Schuelke is a graduate of St. Peter’s College and received his law degree from Villanova University. He served for four years after law school graduation in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, U.S. Army.

Wechsler graduated from Pennsylvania State University and earned his law degree from George Washington University, where he was a member of the Law Review and of the Order of the Coif. He served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Joseph C. Waddy of the District of Columbia after law school.