Leigha Simonton, the recently departed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, is joining the Dallas office of Dykema.
“I am taking a break for a couple more months before returning to law practice,” she wrote Wednesday on her LinkedIn page, “but I am excited to announce that — after choosing between some incredible opportunities with wonderful people — I will be joining Dykema as a member (partner) in their Dallas office and will be expanding their exceptional white collar/compliance/investigations/government enforcement practice, led by fellow former Department of Justice attorney Mark Chutkow, to Texas and the entire South/Southwest.
“I will also keep a foot in appellate, where I will practice alongside Dallas managing member and incredibly talented appellate lawyer Chris Kratovil.”
Kratovil told The Texas Lawbook, “We are very, very excited about this. Leigha has been a dear friend for many years. She has a platinum-plated resume from start to finish. She’s as brilliant a lawyer as she is a fine and decent person.”
In a comment posted to Simonton’s LinkedIn page, Kratovil wrote, “We are so thrilled that you will be joining us at Dykema in April! I very much look forward to watching you build what I know will soon be one of the leading white-collar and governmental investigations practices in Texas.”
Kratovil and Simonton’s husband, U.S. Magistrate David L. Horan of Dallas, attended the University of Notre Dame together as undergraduates in the 1990s. Kratovil said he and his wife are godparents to children of Simonton and Horan, and vice versa.
Simonton, a 2001 graduate of Yale Law School, joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2005 after clerkships with U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham and two years as a litigation associate at Haynes Boone. Her most recent position in the U.S. attorney’s office before President Joe Biden chose her to lead the office in 2022 was as chief of its appellate division.
Simonton resigned effective on Jan. 19 of this year, the day before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Chad Meacham, a veteran top criminal prosecutor in the office, is serving as acting U.S. attorney, a position he’s held in the past, until Trump names a permanent successor to Simonton.
Click here to read Lawbook’s exit interview with U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton.