Davis Wright Tremaine Expands White Collar and Government Investigations Practice

Stephen A. Cazares, a former federal prosecutor with two decades of experience handling complex corporate and securities fraud investigations and litigation, has joined the white collar and government investigations team at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as a partner. He will work in the firm’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

Most recently the deputy chief of the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, Cazares played a leading role in many of Southern California’s largest and most high-profile white collar investigations and prosecutions of the last 14 years. Cazares also served as a staff attorney in the SEC Division of Enforcement, where he investigated and prosecuted financial fraud cases. Many of his investigations involved parallel civil litigation and/or SEC regulatory investigations and litigation, the firm said in a release.

“From the investigation stages through jury trial, Stephen brings to our firm years of experience managing high-stakes matters,” said Rob Maguire, chair of the litigation practice group at Davis Wright Tremaine. “Our clients in tech, healthcare, financial services, and many other industries will benefit from his dual civil and criminal regulatory expertise. We look forward to him increasing our depth in California.”

During his time at DOJ, Cazares was lead or co-lead counsel in 16 federal jury trials to verdict, as well as principle author and oral advocate in a dozen appeals before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

His cases while with DOJ included:
• prosecution of a hedge fund manager in a net asset value fraud case;
• prosecution of a former executive of a publicly traded food company in relation to a revenue inflation scheme;
• prosecution of a former CIA agent for defrauding investors in independent films; and
• prosecution of former Major League Baseball star Doug DeCinces for insider trading.

As deputy chief of the Major Frauds Sections, Cazares was also responsible for the training and supervision of other federal prosecutors, including trial attorneys in the DOJ Health Care Fraud Strike Force in Southern California, the firm said.

Cazares’ investigations and prosecutions while at the SEC included cases of accounting fraud, insider trading, investment adviser fraud, market manipulation, and public company disclosure violations. During his SEC tenure, he was also tapped to spend a year and a half as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California to assist in the prosecution of securities fraud cases.

“Davis Wright’s team is handling some of the country’s most-watched white collar cases right now,” said Cazares. “I look forward to partnering with this well-regarded team, and the full range of the firm’s practice groups, to put my government experience to work for Davis Wright clients.”

Cazares received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from UCLA Law School.