David H. Hoffman

DAVID HOFFMAN is a global co-leader of Sidley’s White Collar Defense and Investigations practice. A former federal prosecutor, inspector general, Supreme Court clerk, and Senate press secretary, he has been lead counsel for a large number of the nation’s most recognizable companies and entities in matters involving high-stakes litigation and government investigations, often requiring complex crisis management experience. David has been ranked in Chambers USA every year from 2019 through 2026 for Litigation: White Collar Investigations (Illinois). The 2026 edition quotes clients as saying, “David has a nimble legal mind and an indefatigable work ethic,” and “David is a super litigator. He is the guy you want when you have a difficult case and you need to pummel the other side.” In 2025, clients said that “David is smart, thoughtful and savvy,” and that he is an “outstanding lawyer who is responsive and intelligent.” David is also recommended in 2026 by Legal 500 United States for Corporate Investigations, and he has been ranked consistently since 2016 by The Best Lawyers in America® for Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation, and White Collar Defense.

David is an experienced and successful first-chair trial and appellate lawyer in federal and state courts, having tried 16 cases to verdict, most of them jury trials, argued numerous appeals, and acted as lead counsel in over 100 evidentiary hearings and other contested proceedings. He regularly acts as lead counsel for public companies in their most significant cases in federal and state courts around the country. David’s extensive litigation experience includes cases alleging bribery and other corruption violations, fraud (including False Claims Act violations, accounting fraud, consumer fraud, and health care fraud), trade secret misappropriation, negligence, and breach of contract. He has extensive experience in class action cases, federal multidistrict litigation, and matters involving simultaneous cases in numerous federal and state jurisdictions, cases representing clients as both plaintiff and defendant, and matters in which the client is plaintiff, defendant, and third-party defendant in overlapping cases.

David has also been lead counsel for many public companies in major investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, both Main Justice and numerous U.S. Attorney’s Offices, typically involving various types of alleged corruption, fraud, antitrust violations, trade secret theft, and conspiracies. David has also been lead counsel in numerous multistate and single-state attorney general investigations involving these subjects as well as alleged data breaches, misleading advertising, and violations of consumer protection statutes. Additionally, he has served as lead counsel, in coordination with Sidley’s leading Securities Enforcement practice, in SEC investigations involving accounting fraud and internal controls over financial reporting.

David has also conducted and directed many internal investigations involving serious allegations of fraud and corruption, representing both companies and their independent board committees, frequently under intense media scrutiny. His understanding of compliance, audit, and internal control issues as a former inspector general gives him additional depth in handling investigative matters involving fraud or financial improprieties. He is especially experienced in corruption and bribery issues, having taught Public Corruption and the Law at the University of Chicago Law School from 2010 through 2026 and having authored the casebook Public Corruption and the Law with Professor Juliet Sorensen (West Academic 2016). Examples of David’s white collar investigative matters are listed below.

Clients commonly turn to David when high-profile crises result in both extensive litigation and multiple government criminal and/or civil investigations. These matters require deep knowledge and skill not only in complex litigation and white collar investigations but also in leadership and public communications strategy, all areas in which David has deep experience from his work in the public and private sectors. (See Full Professional Biography below.) David is a member of Sidley’s highly ranked Crisis and Risk Management team and uses his wide-ranging experiences and leadership roles in working collaboratively with legal and non-legal corporate leaders when crises involving litigation and white-collar issues arise.

David is also highly experienced in designing systems to deter corruption and misconduct and encourage ethical behavior. As inspector general of the City of Chicago, David established, hired, and supervised an external audit team that examined internal controls and compliance procedures throughout a US$7 billion-per-year, 36,000-employee entity. At Sidley, as inspector general, and as a member of the Illinois Reform Commission, he has helped design compliance systems and procedures for a large number of entities, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to large government divisions to publicly traded companies. From 2011 to the present, he has served as a member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Legal Services Corporation (LSC), after helping design governance, compliance, and ethics systems and procedures for LSC as a member of its inaugural Fiscal Oversight Task Force.

David is dedicated to using his time to help important civic, pro bono, and charitable endeavors. He has served as a judicially appointed Special Assistant State’s Attorney to represent the Cook County Board of Ethics in enforcement litigation against former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and to represent the Cook State’s Attorney’s Office in immigration-related litigation against the Justice Department. He also served as a judicially appointed Deputy Special Prosecutor in the investigation and prosecution of former Assistant State’s Attorneys for perjury and obstruction of justice. He was appointed by former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to serve on the Illinois Reform Commission and by former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel to serve on the Chicago Infrastructure Trust. He is a former board member and chair of the Civil Rights Executive Committee of the Anti-Defamation League (Midwest Chapter) and a former board member of the SGA Youth and Family Services, the Better Government Association, and other charitable board services.

Full Professional Biography:

David graduated from Yale University with a B.A. cum laude in History in 1988, where he was captain of the rugby team. He subsequently served as press secretary and foreign policy legislative assistant to the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, U.S. Senator David L. Boren (D-OK). David graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1995 with high honors, Order of the Coif, and served as Articles Editor of the Law Review. He was a Tony Patino Fellow, received the University President’s Award for Volunteer Service, and founded the community service group Neighbors that partners with the adjacent Woodlawn community.

David served as a law clerk for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in October Term 1996, and for Judge Dennis G. Jacobs of the U.S. Court Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1995 to 1996.

From 1998 to 2005, David served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago. David led investigations and prosecutions involving police corruption, healthcare and bank fraud, civil rights violations, organized gang conspiracies, and interstate weapons trafficking, among other matters. In 2002, David was promoted to be Deputy Chief in charge of a newly created unit to focus on gun violence from organized gangs. David also served as co-head of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods anti-gun-violence program and was a recipient of the U.S. Justice Department’s Director’s Award. In editorials, the Chicago Tribune praised David as “an uncommonly accomplished crime-fighter” who was an “architect of strategies that have slashed this city’s murder rate” from 2002 to 2005.

From 2005 to 2009, David served as the inspector general for the City of Chicago, following appointment by the Mayor and confirmation by the City Council. David transformed the office into a strong, independent anti-corruption agency that conducted investigations, audits, and analyses involving all operations of the City of Chicago, a US$7-billion-per-year municipal corporation with 36,000 employees. Under David’s leadership, the office for the first time conducted high-level criminal investigations, including large joint investigations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the Antitrust Section of DOJ, and federal inspector general offices. He also moved the office away from being a purely investigative office, and hired a team of auditors which, for the first time, began conducting independent audits relating to compliance, efficiency, and other issues.

In 2009, while inspector general, David was appointed by Governor Pat Quinn to serve as a commissioner on the Illinois Reform Commission, the independent body created after the arrest of Governor Blagojevich to recommend anti-corruption and ethics reforms for Illinois. The Commission issued its report in April 2009, recommending sweeping legislative changes, some of which were enacted by the state legislature.

David was a candidate for the United States Senate in 2010, placing second in the Democratic primary by a margin of 39% to 34%. David was endorsed by all the major daily newspapers in Illinois, with the Chicago Tribune calling him “an incorruptible man who tells truth to power,” and Crain’s Chicago Business praising his “independence and integrity.”

David has been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2010, where he teaches Public Corruption and the Law. He has been a guest lecturer at Northwestern University Law School, Notre Dame Law School, and the Department of Justice training academy. David is co-author with Professor Juliet Sorensen of the casebook Public Corruption and the Law, published by West Academic in 2016. David is also the author, with Sidley colleague Daniel Craig, of the chapter on all significant legal privilege doctrines, titled Privileges, in the treatise Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (Thomson Reuters 5th ed., 2021).

David was appointed in 2011 to the Audit Committee of the board of directors of the U.S. Legal Services Corporation. From 2010 to 2011, he served as a member of LSC’s Fiscal Oversight Task Force, which issued a report in August 2011 recommending new governance, compliance, and ethics systems and procedures for LSC, which have been implemented. From 2018 to 2019, he served as co-chair of LSC’s Opioid Task Force, made up or judges, health care professionals, leading legal aid attorneys, and corporate and sports leaders. The Task Force’s 2019 report made recommendations to strengthen the role of America’s civil legal aid system in responding to the Opioid Task Force.

In July 2012, Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed David to serve as one of five board members of the newly-created Chicago Infrastructure Trust, a not-for-profit entity designed to assess the wisdom and feasibility of private financing for public infrastructure projects, and to provide a vehicle for such financing when it is consistent with the public interest. David served as a director on the Trust from 2012 through 2014.

David has served as co-chair of the Civil Rights Executive Committee of the Anti-Defamation League (Midwest Chapter), a member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, the board of directors of the American Constitution Society’s Chicago Lawyer Chapter (Advisory Board), the Better Government Association, the John Howard Association (Advisory Board), Providence St-Mel School, and SGA Youth & Family Services.

David was honored by the American Friends of Hebrew University with the Jerold S. Solovy Torch of Learning Award in September 2016. David also received the John Gardner Public Service Award in 2012 from Common Cause and the Champion of the Public Interest award in 2010 from BPI (Business and Professional People for the Public Interest) and was chosen for Crain’s “40 Under 40” in 2006.

Sampling of David’s representations involving litigation, white-collar investigations, and both:

• Lead counsel for Morgan Stanley in False Claims Act lawsuits brought in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York state courts relating to remarketing of municipal bonds. Won motion to dismiss in one state, settled in one state shortly before trial, and other three remain pending.
• Lead counsel for Fortune 500 health care company in multidistrict federal class action litigation, HHS-OIG investigation, and 41-State Attorney General investigation relating to data breach. Federal investigation closed without action; others remain pending.
• Lead counsel for Obama Foundation in federal lawsuits in Northern District of Illinois seeking to block building of presidential center in public park. Won denial of plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion and dismissal of remaining claims, and successfully defended court’s rulings in plaintiffs’ appeals to Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.
• Co-lead counsel for Archer Daniels Midland as plaintiff, defendant, and third-party defendant in multidistrict federal class action cases and state-court cases in Louisiana, Illinois, and Minnesota relating to damages to corn export market caused by unauthorized introduction of strain of genetically modified corn. Won motions to dismiss as defendant and settled cases as plaintiff.
• Lead counsel for Neiman Marcus in consolidated federal class action litigation, SEC investigation, HHS-OIG investigation, 45-State Attorney General investigation, and Congressional and State legislative hearings relating to data breach. Federal investigations closed without action and litigation and attorney general investigation settled.
• Co-lead counsel for Home Depot in computer software trade secret misappropriation case involving 11 claimed trade secrets and the company’s hiring of one of the plaintiff’s employees. Won full summary judgment shortly before trial.
• Lead counsel for Big Ten Conference in lawsuit in Michigan state court by member university for discipline imposed by conference for football team’s violations. University dismissed lawsuit on eve of preliminary injunction hearing.
• Lead counsel for Big Ten Commissioner in federal lawsuit in Eastern District of Michigan by former university football coach against university official and conference commissioner relating to coach’s termination by university.
• Lead counsel for Abbott in state lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois accusing it of bribery in the Brazilian health care system. Won motion to dismiss.
• Lead counsel for City of Highland Park in federal lawsuit in Northern District of Illinois by gun-rights group seeking to have municipality’s assault-weapons ban declared unconstitutional. Won denial of plaintiff’s preliminary injunction motion after which plaintiff dismissed case.
• Lead counsel for Archer Daniels Midland as plaintiff in federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Louisiana seeking damages under admiralty law for shipping accident that shut down a key grain export facility. Settled on eve of trial.
• Lead counsel for Fortune 50 financial services company in fraud case in Texas state court relating to renewable-energy-credit transactions. Won full summary judgment motion after extensive discovery but before any depositions taken.
• Co-lead counsel for automative company in fraud investigation Department of Justice, Southern District of New York. Investigation closed without any action against the company.
• Co-lead counsel for energy company in criminal and civil antitrust investigation by Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Investigation closed without any action against the company.
• Led independent investigation for the American Psychological Association into allegations that the APA colluded with government officials after 9/11 to change its ethics code and take other actions to make it easier for psychologists to participate in abusive interrogations of foreign detainees.
• Lead counsel for global restaurant company in bribery investigation by Department of Justice, Northern District of Illinois. Investigation closed without any action against the company.
• Lead counsel for Power Solutions International in accounting fraud investigation by Department of Justice, Northern District of Illinois. DOJ agreed to Non-Prosecution Agreement with company.
• Lead counsel for Redflex Traffic Systems in bribery investigation by Department of Justice, Public Integrity Section, Northern District of Illinois, and Southern District of Ohio. DOJ agreed to Non-Prosecution Agreement with company.
• Lead counsel for national retailer in health care fraud investigation by various Department of Justice offices and State Attorneys General.
• Lead counsel for national retailer in False Claims Act investigation by Department of Justice alleging fraud relating to customs import duties.