After more than 20 years practicing at Thompson & Knight and later Holland & Knight, Richard Roper has left the law firm to take a new role with Vartabedian Hester & Haynes, where he will start and head a white collar and investigations practice group.
Roper, the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, recently took some time to speak to The Texas Lawbook about the move while he was cruising from Mallorca, Spain, to Florence, Italy. He said a “combination of factors” led him to make the move to VHH, including that the firm has offices in Dallas and Fort Worth, and noted his prior firm closed its Fort Worth outpost.
“Having an office in both cities would be a plus to myself and my clients,” he said, “And I just think it’s a great opportunity to work with some superb litigators.”
Founding partner of VHH, Rob Vartabedian, told The Lawbook that when he launched the firm in January 2024 with a group of 10 attorneys from Alston & Bird, the focus was on serving energy industry clients, but the goal was always to expand and add a white collar investigations group.
“That was always part of the plan,” he said. “It was just a matter of finding the right people.”
Now, the firm employs 31 lawyers and Vartabedian said Roper — who worked with him, as well as firm cofounders Conrad Hester and Craig Haynes at Thompson & Knight — will be tasked with building out the team of attorneys who will work with him in the practice group.
“Richard is unquestionably one of the top white collar defense lawyers in the state and he has a great reputation across the state with federal judges, and with other attorneys in his practice, particularly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Vartabedian said. “With all the experience he gained as the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District, and having had a successful private practice since then, we thought he was the ideal person to lead the group.”
Roper said he’s previously worked with Vartabedian and VHH partner Alix Allison on a False Claims Act case that ended with a favorable result.
“It was a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with them on that engagement,” he said.
Speaking about trends in government investigations, Roper noted that the current presidential administration has made immigration enforcement a priority, and he believes more clients will soon be needing counsel in that area.
“I think that area will still be a hot area for enforcement activities,” he said. “But I’ve notice that ‘fraud, waste and abuse’ is an important phrase for the Department of Justice at this point, and I think they’re going to zero in on any cases that meet that criteria, especially healthcare fraud. I still think that’s going to be a priority.”
Roper earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from The University of Texas at Arlington in 1979 and graduated from Texas Tech University School of Law in 1982.
He began his career as an assistant district attorney in Tarrant County and after five years went to work as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Texas, ascending to the role of USA in June 2004.