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After five years in the high-profile position of US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ron Machen is returning to WilmerHale. He stepped down on April 1 as the longest-serving of the District's US Attorneys in almost four decades, joining the firm as a partner in its investigations and criminal litigation practice. DC's 300-lawyer US Attorney's office is the country's largest. During his time as its chief, Ron says he's proud to have helped raise the office's profile on national security, U.S. economic sanctions, and fraud and public corruption matters, and for having boosted the office's outreach efforts in the community.
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Under Ron's watch, the office took on cases significant not just to the District but to the entire country, including the conviction of four former Blackwater security guards for killing 14 unarmed civilians in Iraq, the prosecution of Ahmed Abu Khatallah for his alleged role in the attack on the US Mission in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, and the convictions of numerous spies and terrorists. It also convicted six people closely associated with the 2010 mayoral campaign of former DC Mayor Vincent Gray. During Ron's tenure the office obtained more than 160 convictions in federal and local corruption matters, including a U.S. Congressman, and three DC City Council members. Ron was first hired to the DC US Attorney's office as an AUSA by current Attorney General Eric Holder in 1997 and spent nearly five years there before joining WilmerHale. Both are workplaces that promote collegiality and emphasize teamwork, he says, and are the only two places he's worked since graduating from Harvard Law School and clerking on the 6th Circuit for Judge Damon J. Keith.
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Ron will start at WilmerHale in the the beginning of June, and until then, he says he's taking the longest break he's ever had. In that interim, you might find the former Stanford football player watching his 11 and 14-year-old sons playing football (his oldest son also played, at Georgia Tech), playing chess with his youngest son, working out and visiting his parents. His early interest in law was sparked by his uncle, an attorney. "He was one of those guys who'd give you a dollar if you made a good argument," Ron tells us. "So he really had an influence on opening my eyes about being a lawyer."
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