David Hoffman
David Hoffman is a partner at Sidley Austin and the co-head of Sidley’s White Collar Group in Chicago, where his practice focuses on complex litigation, internal investigations, and Department of Justice and SEC investigations.
Among other matters, he recently led an independent investigation for the American Psychological Association as to whether the APA issued ethical guidelines in collusion with the CIA and the Defense Department in relation to the involvement of psychologists in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, resulting in an investigative report released publicly by the APA.
David is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as Articles Editor of the Law Review. David served as a law clerk for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Judge Dennis G. Jacobs (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit).
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 health care fraud, bank fraud, and other types of fraud, civil rights violations, organized gang conspiracies, and interstate weapons trafficking, among other matters. David served as a Deputy Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office beginning in 2002, supervised the office’s newly-created gang unit, served as co-head of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods anti-gun violence program, and was a recipient of the Justice Department’s Director’s Award.
From 2005 to 2009, David served as the Inspector General for the City of Chicago. David transformed the office into a strong, independent anti-corruption agency that 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. 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.
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 the truth to power.”
For the past six years, David has been a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches public corruption and the law. Among civic and charitable positions, David serves on the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Legal Services Corporation, co-chairs the Civil Rights Executive Committee of the Anti-Defamation League’s Midwest Chapter, and serves as an Advisory Board Member of the American Constitution Society’s Chicago Lawyer Chapter. David received the John Gardner Public Service Award from Common Cause, the Champion of the Public Interest award from BPI (Business and Professional People for the Public Interest), and was chosen for Crain’s 40 Under 40 in 2006.
