Former Acting Deputy Attorney General; Retired partner King & Spalding LLP; Adjunct Professor of Law
Gary G. Grindler B.S. and J.D. Northwestern University Gary Grindler practiced law for 43 years, including over 13 years at the Department of Justice. He retired as partner at King & Spalding LLP and continues to practice on a part-time basis. As an Adjunct Professor he will be teaching a seminar in the Fall 2023 titled: “Critical Issues Facing the Department of Justice: DOJ’s Mission, the Rule of Law, Exercise of Discretion and Seeking Justice; role of Defense Counsel.”
Professor Grindler held a number of positions with the Department of Justice including serving as Acting Deputy Attorney General (second highest ranking official at DOJ), Chief of Staff to the Attorney General, principal deputy to the Deputy AG and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in both the Southern District of N.Y. and Northern District of Georgia. He also served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division supervising the Federal Programs Branch and the Office of Immigration Litigation, and in the Criminal Division supervising the Fraud and Appellate Sections and the Capital Case Unit.
While serving as Acting Deputy Attorney General under Attorney General Eric Holder, Professor Grindler was involved in the initiation and supervision of the investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, supervised DOJ’s work in Iraq to assist in the development of a comprehensive rule of law structure, and worked on numerous sensitive criminal and national security investigations. As Deputy Assistant AG over the Federal Program’s Branch, he represented the President in his official capacity at two video depositions taken at the White House in the Whitewater prosecutions. He also represented the Secret Service in connection with Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s investigation.
While an AUSA in New York, he co-wrote the appellate brief in United States v. Sun Mung Moon, 718 F. 2nd 1210(2nd Cir.). While a DAAG supervising the Office of Immigration Litigation, he argued a matter involving the Golden Venture incident challenging the deportation of illegal aliens. You Yi Yang v. Maugans, 68 F.3rd 1540 (3rd Cir.).
In private practice, Professor Grindler focused on white-collar criminal defense of individuals and business entities, multi-jurisdictional parallel, internal investigations, state enforcement investigations and compliance. He also worked on a number of pro bono matters including habeas death penalty matters, a child custody case involving a battered spouse, defense of indigent individuals charged with federal crimes and numerous clemency petitions for federal inmates. He was co-counsel for former head of OMB Bert Lance in a prosecution that resulted, after a five-month trial, in acquittals on all counts of bank fraud. In this matter, Professor Grindler successfully argued a pre-trial appeal seeking sanctions for the improper release of grand jury information. In re Grand Jury Investigation, T. Bertram Lance, 610 F. 2d 202(5th Cir). He also co-wrote the Supreme Court brief in William Archie Williams v. United States, 73 L. Ed. 767, resulting in a reversal of the false statement conviction.
Professor Grindler has written articles related to federal prosecution including, by way of example, three articles that he co-wrote: “Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records: The New World of Obstruction of Justice” (2006)(originally published in the American Criminal Law Review at Georgetown University, 41 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 67 – 2004); “True Cooperation: DOJ’s ‘Reshaped Conversation’ and Its Consequences,” ABA’s Criminal Justice magazine (2015); and “Courts Diverge on the Reach of Personal Jurisdiction in FCPA Cases Against Foreign Defendants,” Financial Fraud Law Report (April 2013).
Professor Grindler twice received the Edmund J. Randolph Award (1999 and 2012), the highest award given to DOJ attorneys. He served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Ethics and Compliance Initiative and the Board of Trustees for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Professor Grindler graduated from Northwestern with a B.S. in Communication Studies. He earned his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law where he served as Special Projects Editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.