Cleary Gottlieb Expands Bench of Former Federal Prosecutors With Addition of United States Attorney Chris Kavanaugh

Cleary Gottlieb announced today that Chris Kavanaugh, most recently the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will join the firm’s Washington, D.C., office as a partner in its Americas Litigation Group.

“We are thrilled to welcome Chris to our firm,” said Cleary Managing Partner Michael Gerstenzang. “His exceptional trial experience in high-profile national security matters and stellar government service record will bolster our leading litigation practice.”

As part of Cleary’s enforcement and litigation team, Chris will focus on government and internal investigations and litigation with a particular focus on national security-related corporate representations, including export control and sanctions matters.

Chris led a distinguished career at the highest levels of the United States Department of Justice. As the Presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, Chris led and supervised all criminal and civil litigation for a district with a population of nearly three million people.

Chris has extensive first-chair trial experience, having personally tried over 40 criminal jury trials to verdict. He has served as lead counsel and United States Attorney in matters that garnered national attention, including several groundbreaking corporate criminal and civil resolutions.

Chris was a leader within the United States Attorney community and Department of Justice, serving as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, a small group of United States Attorneys selected by the Attorney General to advise on initiatives and policy across the Department. Chris was also appointed by Department of Justice leadership to chair the National Security Subcommittee, where he led a group of over thirty United States Attorneys in developing Department-wide national security policy and setting enforcement priorities. Chris also served on the Corporate Criminal Enforcement Working Group, which authored a uniform Voluntary Self-Disclosure policy that set a nationwide standard for detailing the circumstances under which a company will receive credit for disclosing misconduct. This policy was later adopted by every United States Attorney’s Office across the country.

Prior to his role as United States Attorney, Chris was a senior advisor to the Deputy Attorney General and oversaw several high-profile national security investigations. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for 14 years in both the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia, where he directed investigations and prosecutions focused on white-collar, national security, fraud, public corruption, civil rights, racketeering, and homicides. Chris has also successfully argued appeals in the United States Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Fourth Circuits.

“Chris’s top-shelf government experience and his outstanding advocacy, leadership, and trial skills make him an exceptional addition to Cleary,” said Americas Litigation Group Co-Leader Victor Hou. “His track record of investigating, prosecuting, and supervising sophisticated white-collar and national security matters positions him well to be a trusted advisor to our clients.”

“I chose Cleary because of its tremendous team of leading lawyers in our field advising clients on complex challenges across multiple jurisdictions,” said Chris. “I look forward to helping to expand the firm’s impressive enforcement and litigation presence in Washington, D.C.”

Chris received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and B.S. from Georgia Tech. He clerked for the Honorable James C. Cacheris of the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Chris’s arrival expands Cleary’s deep bench of accomplished litigators with high-level government credentials. The team includes former Department of Justice senior officials and prosecutors Lev Dassin, Victor Hou, Joon Kim, Jonathan Kolodner, David Last, Rahul Mukhi, and Matthew Yelovich, and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission senior officials Matthew Solomon and Tom Bednar. Consistent with Cleary’s client-centered approach, the team regularly draws upon the experience of many other partners, including former senior officials of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.