Departing U.S. Attorney to Build White-Collar Niche for Snell
Orange County Business Journal
By Jessica C. Lee
November 19, 2007
Wayne Gross has overseen headline-grabbing investigations this year as head of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Santa Ana.
Just don’t ask him to tell you about them.
Gross, who in December is set to join Snell & Wilmer LLP’s Costa Mesa office, declined to talk about his current work heading the local U.S. Attorney’s office, where he’s overseen investigations into Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Nicholas and Sheriff Mike Carona.
Gross now has removed himself from the Carona investigation pending his move to Snell & Wilmer.
The investigation into Carona led to federal charges against him alleging he used his office to enrich himself and friends.
The probe of Nicholas, centered on mis-dated stock option grants at Irvine chipmaker Broadcom, has unearthed allegations of drug use and other wild behavior, but no charges have been filed yet.
Gross, an assistant U.S. Attorney and chief of the Santa Ana branch office, said he wasn’t free to talk much about either case in an interview last week.
The probe of Nicholas, which has included the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission, shows the importance of honest and fair business practices, he said.
“It’s extremely important to the community because it serves as an illustration of the extent to which the FBI and the SEC apply a much greater scrutiny on business practices that were previously and largely ignored,” Gross
said.
Nicholas left Broadcom as chief executive in 2003. Earlier this year, Broadcom restated results for 1998 through 2005 with charges of $2.2 billion for options that were improperly accounted for.
The Nicholas probe, overseen by Gross and led by Santa Ana office deputy chief Ken Julian, delved into civil suits by a former Nicholas personal assistant and contractors alleging he used drugs and prostitutes.
At Snell & Wilmer, Gross is set to head a newly created white-collar criminal defense practice. He’ll become a partner in the Phoenix-based firm’s commercial litigation practice.
Gross is expected to work on executive criminal defense cases, securities law, intellectual property issues and internal business investigations.
He’s set to be the first lawyer at Snell & Wilmer’s Costa Mesa office to practice whitecollar criminal defense, administrative partner William O’Hare said.
A federal prosecutor for 17 years, Gross has run the U.S. Attorney’s Santa Ana office since 2004.
He’s tried high-profile cases here, including the 1990s fertility scandal at the University of California, Irvine.
“I’ve had good fortune to do everything at the U.S. Attorney’s office from high profile trials to civil litigation,” Gross said. “So it just came time for me to take on the next challenge.”
Gross said he’s had offers to join local and national law firms but chose Snell & Wilmer’s Costa Mesa office because of its range of practices.
The job is a chance to “make a major impact,” he said.
Snell & Wilmer, which specializes in business litigation, securities, employment, product liability and real estate among other practices, has 70 lawyers at its Costa Mesa office. It has more than 400 in all at its offices in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Denver.
White-Collar Niche
Landing a chief U.S. Attorney to work on white-collar cases could help Snell & Wilmer carve out a niche among the county’s big three law firms, Costa Mesa’s Rutan & Tucker LLP, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP of Irvine and Newport Beach-based Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth.
Snell & Wilmer’s Costa Mesa office ranks No. 7 among law firms here, according to the Business Journal’s most recent list.
“Private law firms are always very eager to attract any experienced U.S. attorney,” O’Hare said. “From a practice standpoint, it establishes a real capability of handling white-collar criminal defense and it also adds strength
to our existing areas.”
The hope is to attract local businesses undergoing federal investigations as clients.
“Wayne is someone with both prosecution experience and civil litigation experience,” O’Hare said. “He knows how to approach these cases because he understands both sides. Clients undergoing investigations of criminal activity or even non-criminal activity would be well served by having him on their side.”
Snell & Wilmer plans to add more lawyers at its Costa Mesa office this year, O’Hare said.
Gross’ move from the public to private practice is not unusual, said Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor of law at Orange-based Chapman University’s law school.
John Hueston, former prosecutor in the Enron Corp. case and Gross’ predecessor at the U.S. Attorney’s office, joined Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella LLP’s Newport Beach office in 2006.
Hueston headed the U.S. Attorney’s Santa Ana office until 2004 when he joined the government’s Enron task force.
Both Gross and Hueston are adjunct professors at Chapman University School of Law.
Networking among local business people will be a key part of Gross’ new job, he said.
“As chief, I had the opportunity to work with business and community leaders in Orange County and I will continue to do so with my new role,” he said.