Nicola T. Hanna

Nick Hanna, who most recently served as United States Attorney for the Central District of California, is a litigation partner in Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office and co-chairs the firm’s global White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group. Nick represents Fortune 500 companies and executives in high-stakes civil litigation, white collar crime, and regulatory and securities enforcement – including internal investigations, False Claims Act cases, and compliance counseling.

A highly experienced trial lawyer, Nick has first-chaired civil and criminal cases in state and federal courts and is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the preeminent invitation-only organization of trial lawyers in North America. Nick was also recently recognized in the Daily Journal’s 2023 “Top Verdicts” for obtaining a complete jury defense verdict, after less than three hours of deliberation, in a federal trademark infringement suit brought against TikTok, Inc. and ByteDance Ltd.  Nick is also frequently ranked among the best white collar attorneys in the nation. In 2024, the Daily Journal recognized Nick as one of California’s Top White Collar Lawyers. Nick is also ranked Band 1 in California by Chambers USA Guide for white collar defense, listed in Best Lawyers in America®, recommended for class actions and white-collar crime in Institutional Investor’s Benchmark Litigation Guide, routinely named a Southern California “Super Lawyer” for white collar defense by Los Angeles Magazine, and recognized in Who’s Who Legal as a leading white-collar practitioner in its 2024 Investigations guide. 

From 2018 to 2021, Nick served as the Senate confirmed United States Attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, where he represented the United States in all criminal, civil, national security and tax matters within the district, an area encompassing seven counties and nearly half the state’s population. In that capacity, Nick led a team of over 280 Assistant U.S. Attorneys – the largest U.S. Attorney’s Office outside of Washington D.C. – and oversaw some of the most significant public corruption, fraud, money laundering, cybercrime, economic espionage, and civil rights cases in the country.

As U.S. Attorney, Nick served for three years as the Chair of the White Collar Fraud Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, responsible for helping guide DOJ’s nationwide corporate enforcement strategy. He also served as a member of the President’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud, and as a member of the Corporate Enforcement and Accountability Working Group. During his tenure, Nick partnered with DOJ’s Antitrust Division to start the Procurement Collusion Strike Force in Los Angeles – focused on investigating antitrust crimes in public contracting, such as bid-rigging – created a Financial Crimes Task Force, and oversaw one of the largest Health Care Strike Force’s in the country.

Prior to becoming U.S. Attorney, Nick was a litigation partner with Gibson Dunn for almost 20 years, focusing on white collar defense, regulatory enforcement, and commercial litigation. Nick has significant experience handling Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, is one of the few attorneys to have litigated FCPA cases with both DOJ and the SEC, and has conducted sensitive cross-border internal investigations around the globe, including in Argentina, China, Colombia, India, Malaysia, Russia, UAE, and Venezuela.

Early in his career, Nick served as a federal prosecutor in Southern California for eight years. Nick was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles from 1990 to 1994, handling matters involving illegal export of high-technology computer equipment, money laundering, financial structuring, narcotics, and other violent and economic crimes. From 1995 to 1998, Nick was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California in San Diego, where he served as Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and handled cases involving transnational narcotics trafficking organizations, criminal tax and money laundering violations, and international chemical diversion. As an Assistant United States Attorney, Nick has represented the government in numerous federal court jury trials and has briefed and argued cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Nick received his law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987, where he served as Associate Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. He earned his B.A. degree from the University of California, San Diego in 1984.