By Mark Curriden
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
HOUSTON (Aug. 26) – Former Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Donald DeGabrielle has joined Bracewell & Giuliani in Houston as a partner.
DeGabrielle, a former FBI agent who tried more than 200 criminal cases as a state and federal prosecutor in Texas and Louisiana, joins Bracewell’s white-collar practice, which has more than two-dozen lawyers and growing.
Bracewell has added two other high profile white-collar lawyers – former First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery Vaden of Houston and Paul Maco, a former senior official at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC – during the past two years.
“Bracewell is building one of the premier white-collar and corporate internal investigations teams in the country and I decided I wanted to be part of it,” says DeGabrielle, who was a partner at Fulbright for four years. “There is an ever-changing rubric of regulatory requirements which impact the operations of businesses and the conduct of its employees.”
DeGabrielle says he expects the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office and the U.S. Justice Department are going to become more aggressive in their white-collar investigations during the next few years.
“Well-meaning officers, directors and employees can conceivably run afoul of regulations of which they were not even aware,” he says. “This may continue to be problematic as the regulatory agencies at the federal and local levels continue to change the priorities of the issues upon which they want emphasis.”
As a federal prosecutor, DeGabrielle led several high-profile public corruption cases and prosecuted the surrender of a war crimes fugitive to the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania.
DeGabrielle says corporate clients are facing new regulatory issues. He points to the emerging problem for clients regarding the massive amount of electronic data collected, preserved and later forced to surrender “when the government seeks ‘everything’ which may conceivably relate to an ongoing investigation or regulatory enforcement action.”
“I’ve been able to help clients that are the victims of crimes, such as extortion, embezzlement schemes and fraud,” he says. “Many corporate officials, including general counsels, have not had much experience dealing with the criminal justice system. I can help them determine which agency – state or federal – is the best to help.”
DeGabrielle is very involved in public service. He is on the Board of Directors for Crime Stoppers of Houston and he is part of a pro bono team representing a death row inmate on appeal. In addition, he does pro bono work for the Veterans Administration by working with vets at several legal clinics.