A prominent New York attorney who is one of six passengers missing from a sunken boat off the coast of Italy was travelling with his longtime British client, British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch. This happened just weeks after he helped him avoid conviction for a 12-year legal battle.

On Tuesday, divers were still searching for Lynch, Morvillo and the other three missing passengers. There are at least 15 survivors.

The British-flagged Bayesian was a luxury 56 metre (184 ft) long superyacht that was carrying 22 passengers and was anchored near the Sicilian Port of Porticello on Monday when it was struck by a fierce pre-dawn thunderstorm and sank.

Ayla Ronald and her partner, who is a senior associate in London at Clifford Chance said that they were survivors. The London-based global law firm released a statement about the incident on Tuesday. Ronald, according to the profile of her on the firm's site, has also represented Lynch.

Clifford Chance's spokesperson expressed shock and sadness at the tragic event.

Morvillo is a 59-year-old lawyer who has been representing the UK entrepreneur, Lynch, since 2012. He was Lynch's lead attorney and he won his acquittal after a three-month-long San Francisco trial on fraud charges stemming from Hewlett-Packard’s disastrous acquisition of Lynch’s software company Autonomy.

Robert Morvillo was considered to be one of New York City's most savvy criminal defense attorneys until his death in 2011. Morvillo, the younger Morvillo, is a prominent white-collar lawyer and former assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. He assisted in the criminal investigations of the 9/11 attacks.

Lynch sold Autonomy for $11 billion to HP in 2011. The deal, however, went awry when the U.S. technology giant accused him of fraud.

Morvillo brought Lynch to the witness stand in the U.S. Criminal Trial this summer. It was a bold decision that paid off, as the jury found Lynch not guilty. Lynch testified he wasn't involved in transactions that the prosecutors claimed amounted a massive accounting scam at Autonomy.

Morvillo stated that he joined Lynch's team of lawyers in November 2012 after HP had written down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 Billion.

Morvillo stated that his work with Lynch covered a third of his career. (Reporting and editing by David Bario, Sandra Maler and Sara Merken)

(source: Reuters)