Bracewell has hired the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Alamdar S. Hamdani, as a partner in its government enforcement and investigations practice.
He served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas from December 2022 until Jan. 19, 2025, and for eight years prior to that was an assistant U.S. attorney in the same office. He comes to Bracewell after 17 years working for the Department of Justice.
In an interview with The Texas Lawbook Tuesday, Hamdani said he chose Bracewell in part because of its deep roots in his “adopted hometown” of Houston, its international platform and its “growing and burgeoning enforcement practice.”
“It made a lot of sense, and I knew a lot of people at Bracewell as well,” he said. “Probably the most important thing anywhere is just good people, and the people I’ve met here are good lawyers who do good work and make the right call, and I think that’s incredibly important.”
Monday was his first day in the office.
“I’m excited about all of it,” he said of the transition back to private practice. “I’ll tell you this, it’s exciting to take my 17 years of Department of Justice experience — chasing terrorists, chasing spies and corrupt organizations and cartels — and leveraging that for an organization like Bracewell.”
His private practice experience includes three years at Hamdani & Simon and four years at Winstead in the early 2000s.
In discussing what challenges, if any, are facing career prosecutors amid some of the changes under President Donald Trump’s administration, Hamdani said uncertainty will cause anxiety for professionals anywhere.
“I can tell you when I was an assistant U.S. attorney, which was most of my career and before that a trial attorney at main justice, we had an edict: You follow the facts and the law, and we do justice,” he said. “We don’t get paid handsomely for what we did — several people could walk away and make multiples of what they were making — but they did it so they could do justice every day. Career prosecutors are going to continue to do that.”
Among the changes brought on by the change in administration, is a Feb. 10 executive order that paused enforcement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases. Hamdani said that pause won’t have much of an impact on the guidance he offers clients.
“I’m still going to advise my clients not to engage in corruption,” he said, noting similar rules in the European Union and at the state level are still in effect. “Because, at the end of the day, even if the federal government puts a pause on it for six months, they can ramp up again. … So, companies cannot ignore that statute, it’s still on the books and it’s [in their best interest] to comply.”
When it comes to prosecution of white-collar crimes under the new administration, Hamdani said he has a few takeaways after analyzing the executive orders issued so far.
“I see the focus of the administration on that issue coming after corporations who maybe had been too close to … those providing support for terrorism,” he said. “You’re going to see that kind of merge, with white collar and drug enforcement and national security work coming together. And I think the Southern District of Texas is one of the main places you’re going to see that.”
He noted the Southern District of Texas includes 400 miles of border with Mexico. He predicts enforcement of healthcare fraud and False Claims Act prosecutions will also be a priority of the new administration.
Hamdani earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993 and is a 1999 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center. Before law school, he worked stints at Chubb Insurance and Safeco.
Bracewell Managing Partner Gregory M. Bopp issued a statement welcoming Hamdani to the firm.
“Al is a highly regarded practitioner, whose leadership as a federal prosecutor brings additional strength to our preeminent government enforcement and investigations practice,” he said.
During his tenure in the Southern District of Texas, Hamdani notched several victories
- Reaching an $85 million False Claims Act settlement with mobile cardiac PET scan provider Cardiac Imaging Inc.
- Serving as lead counsel in the conviction of Asher Khan, who was sentenced to prison for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq.
- Serving as lead counsel in the prosecution of Weldon Marshall, who was convicted of unlawfully retaining national defense information.
- Overseeing one of the largest-ever seizures of materials used to manufacture fentanyl.
“Those things I’m incredibly proud of,” he said. “But one thing I’m proud of most is I had the privilege of leading 400 dedicated public servants who get up every day and work tirelessly just to make the lives of nine million people safer every day.”