Amanda Masselam Strachan has traded her government badge for a polished new nameplate at WilmerHale’s Boston office. After nearly two decades of high-profile prosecutions—ranging from a lethal meningitis outbreak to McKinsey’s involvement in the opioid crisis—Strachan is stepping into private practice with a track record few can match.
She wasn’t just another federal prosecutor. Strachan built a name on cases that rocked public health and corporate accountability. From dismantling the compounding pharmacy behind the 2012 meningitis outbreak that left over 100 dead, to securing a $650 million settlement with McKinsey over its opioid consulting practices, her résumé reads more like a legal thriller than a LinkedIn profile.
Now she’s returning to WilmerHale, the very firm she left in 2007 to enter public service. Her homecoming comes at a politically charged moment: the firm is fresh off a courtroom win that blunted a Trump-era executive order aimed at curbing its federal access. At her farewell from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Strachan nodded to the timing, saying the recent court ruling gave her “hope” that her new role would be just as purposeful.
At Wilmer, she’ll tackle white collar criminal defense and healthcare fraud—a natural continuation of her government work, but now from the other side of the table.
Strachan doesn’t just bring accolades. She brings scars from the front lines. She personally led the prosecution of the New England Compounding Center, whose mold-contaminated drugs sparked the 2012 outbreak. Four trials. Thirteen convictions. One of the convicted? NECC president Barry Cadden, now serving a 14.5-year sentence after a racketeering conviction.
She later pivoted to the opioid epidemic, pursuing corporate giants whose influence on addiction was felt nationwide. Her efforts brought down Insys Therapeutics and pushed McKinsey into a historic settlement over its infamous “turbocharge” marketing advice to Purdue Pharma.
Despite the shift to private practice, Strachan’s mission doesn’t appear to have dulled. “We want to make patient care safer,” she said, emphasizing a balance between enforcement and industry continuity. “We also want to make sure these companies are able to continue, to the extent possible, to do what they do.”
For a woman who’s built a career on accountability, her next chapter may look different—but the fight, it seems, is far from over.
