Rachael Jones, a veteran federal prosecutor, has joined the Dallas office of McKool Smith.
Jones, former deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office for Northern District of Texas, began this week as a principal at McKool Smith, where, she said in an interview with The Texas Lawbook, she will continue to focus on white-collar criminal cases and complex civil litigation.
“At my core, I love being in the courtroom,” she said. “I look forward to working with my experienced trial colleagues at McKool Smith and to mentoring younger attorneys.
“Rachael is a seasoned trial lawyer with a stellar track record of success in the courtroom,” said David Sochia, McKool’s chair and managing principal. “She will be an asset to our clients across a broad range of complex commercial litigation and white-collar disputes. We are very excited about her arrival.”
Jones joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2015 and was named deputy chief of the criminal division last year. In that role, she supervised fellow prosecutors and helped manage the division’s hiring and budget while maintaining her own active caseload.
Before her federal service, she spent more than a decade at the Dallas County district attorney’s office, where she held several leadership positions, trained prosecutors, launched community-based prosecution initiatives, and served in the child abuse division. She began her career as an assistant DA in Bexar County.
In all she has tried more than 80 cases before juries, involving offenses ranging from capital murder and child sexual assault to securities, healthcare and tax fraud, to international drug trafficking and money-laundering conspiracies.
One strength she brings to defense work, she said, is knowing, from her years in office, how to resolve disputes with the government before they get to trial.
“If you want to avoid federal prison,” she said, “the best thing to do is avoid a federal indictment.”