Michael R. Bromwich, who oversaw the government’s regulation and enforcement efforts after the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has joined Goodwin Procter LLP as a partner in its litigation department.

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Michael Bromwich

The former Justice Department Inspector General will continue to head and operate his outside consulting and crisis-management firm, The Bromwich Group, he said in an email to Main Justice.

At Goodwin Procter, Bromwich will serve in its securities litigation and white collar defense group, focusing on internal investigations, compliance, monitoring and white collar criminal defense, according to a news release.

The Bromwich Group, launched last month ^[2], provides consulting services for offshore energy matters and assists government enforcement agencies.

President Barack Obama chose Bromwich to serve as the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, later reorganized as the Bureau of Ocean Energy.

In his position, he oversaw the response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which left oil flowing uncapped in the Gulf for three months. Bromwich was an outsider to the job, saying he could fit his knowledge of the oil and gas industry “in a thimble ^[3]” when he started. He enforced a five-month moratorium on deepwater drilling and sanctioned contractors and operations.

In his year-and-a-half in the position, he testified before Congress more than a dozen times. He served as Justice Department Inspector General from 1994 to 1999. He then joined law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in Washington, D.C.  He also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division, eventually heading the Narcotics Unit.