David P. Burns

Prior to re-joining the firm, David served in senior positions in both the Criminal Division and National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Most recently, he served as Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, where he led more than 600 federal prosecutors who conducted investigations and prosecutions involving securities fraud, health care fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, public corruption, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act violations, child exploitation, international narcotics trafficking, human rights violations, organized and transnational crime, gang violence, and other crimes, as well as matters involving international affairs and sensitive law enforcement techniques. Prior to joining the Criminal Division, David served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division from September 2018 to December 2020. In that role, he supervised the Division’s investigations and prosecutions, including counterterrorism, counterintelligence, economic espionage, cyber hacking, FARA, disclosure of classified information, and sanctions and export controls matters. He also spent five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Criminal Division, from 2000 to 2005.

A sample of David’s representative experience include the following:

• Represented a telecommunications company in sanctions, foreign bribery, and terrorist financing investigations conducted by the Southern District of New York and DOJ’s National Security Division.
• Defended a foreign acquiror and U.S. target in CFIUS (Treasury and DOJ) enforcement investigation related to allegations of breach of national security agreement.
• Represented a large U.S. manufacturing company and its European subsidiary in sanctions investigation conducted by a U.S. Attorney’s Office and DOJ’s Criminal and National Security Divisions.
• Represented a financial institution in CFTC enforcement investigation into trade monitoring controls.
• Conducted an internal investigation as board counsel into allegations of earnings manipulation at publicly traded company.
• Represented a large financial institution in investigations of manipulation of interest rate benchmarks conducted by the Criminal and Antitrust Divisions of the DOJ, the CFTC, the SEC, the UK Financial Services Authority, and numerous other international criminal, competition, and regulatory authorities.
• Defended the former general counsel of a major regional brokerage firm in a three-week securities enforcement trial before the SEC’s chief administrative law judge and obtained dismissal of all claims.
• Represented a special committee of the board of directors of a Canadian pharmaceutical company relating to allegations of accounting fraud.
• Defended a government contractor in a multi-year False Claims Act investigation conducted by the DOJ and Department of Defense.
• Defended a marine company executive in a criminal price fixing case prosecuted by the Antitrust Division of the DOJ.
• Represented a large engineering and infrastructure company in an investigation conducted by the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ.
• Represented a United States Congressman in a public corruption investigation conducted by a United States Attorney’s Office.
• Represented an investment bank in an investigation conducted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority involving initial public offering allocations.

David graduated in 1995 from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an Articles Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Boston College in 1991.