US Attorney Known for Aggressive Theories to Join Paul Hastings

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles is stepping down to join Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.

Thomas O’Brien will join the firm in October as a partner in the firm’s litigation department focusing on white-collar crime, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports.

He told the newspaper he was stepping down because a new administration is in place and it’s “time to go out and find new challenges.” O’Brien flew F-14 Tomcat fighter jets with the U.S. Navy before he became a lawyer in 1993, getting a job as a prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. He went on to work in the U.S. Attorney’s office.

A Los Angeles Times story on O’Brien published earlier this year said he has pursued cases that might never have been brought in other jurisdictions and used theories that some criticize as overly aggressive. He prosecuted Lori Drew, a Missouri mother accused in a MySpace hoax that led to a 13-year-old girl’s suicide.

The American Lawyer notes that O’Brien has not worked in private practice before. “U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien has taken on international drug cartels, some of the West Coast's toughest street gangs, and human smuggling rings,” the article says. “But now he has to do something that may be even more challenging: build a book of business.”