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David P. Burns is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is the co-chair of the firm’s National Security Practice Group, and a member of the White Collar and Investigations and Crisis Management practice groups. His practice focuses on white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, national security, and regulatory enforcement matters. David represents corporations and executives in federal, state, and regulatory investigations involving securities and commodities fraud, sanctions and export controls, theft of trade secrets and economic espionage, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, accounting fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international and domestic cartel enforcement, health care fraud, government contracting fraud, and the False Claims Act.
Most recently, David has been listed in Best Lawyers® 2024 for work on Criminal Defense: White-Collar matters. Additionally, David has been recognized by Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers as a leading White Collar attorney in the District of Columbia (eight years ranked), and Who’s Who Legal and Global Investigations Review (GIR) recognized him as a leading investigations lawyer, deemed “excellent” for his work across “federal, state, and regulatory investigations.” Who’s Who Legal also recognized David as a leading lawyer in the area of Business Crime Defense.
Prior to re-joining the firm, David served in senior positions in both the Criminal Division and National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Most recently, he served as Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, where he led more than 600 federal prosecutors who conducted investigations and prosecutions involving securities fraud, health care fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, public corruption, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act violations, child exploitation, international narcotics trafficking, human rights violations, organized and transnational crime, gang violence, and other crimes, as well as matters involving international affairs and sensitive law enforcement techniques. Prior to joining the Criminal Division, David served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division from September 2018 to December 2020. In that role, he supervised the Division’s investigations and prosecutions, including counterterrorism, counterintelligence, economic espionage, cyber hacking, FARA, disclosure of classified information, and sanctions and export controls matters. He also spent five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Criminal Division, from 2000 to 2005.
A sample of David’s representative experience include the following:
David graduated in 1995 from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an Articles Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Boston College in 1991.
Columbia University - 1995 Juris Doctor
Boston College - 1991 Bachelor of Arts
District of Columbia Bar