Steve Dattelbach

BakerHostetler announced that Steven M. Dettelbach, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, rejoined the firm on February 15, in its Cleveland office as a Partner in the Litigation Group and co-leader of the firm’s national White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations team. Dettelbach is also one of NAFUSA’s newest members. He will be in BakerHostetler’s Cleveland and Washington, D.C. offices, following his years of public service in the capital with the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Department of Justice as a prosecutor and more recently a high-ranking participant from the Northern District in many of the Department’s national initiatives. Dettelbach has served as U.S. Attorney for nearly seven years and is well known for his work in the areas of cyber security, corruption, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Dettelbach had been a partner at BakerHostetler from 2006 until 2009 when he was nominated as U.S. Attorney by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate.

As the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Dettelbach earned a reputation for transparency, focusing on corruption, violent crime, fraud, civil rights, and cybercrime. He instituted his district’s first memoranda and indictment review committees for significant cases. He also formed the Northern Ohio Cyber Security Consortium with the help of area businesses, and dedicated two prosecutors to handle cyber enforcement. During his tenure he created what is now a national model to fight heroin and opioid addiction in his district. His office was also responsible for securing agreements for bilingual ballots in Lorain and Cuyahoga Counties to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Dettelbach’s practice will focus on representing corporations and individuals in high-stakes litigation and corporate investigations, white collar defense, regulatory and government investigations and inquiries, and internal corporate investigations and compliance programs.

“We are thrilled to have Steve back with us at BakerHostetler,” said Hewitt Shaw, Managing Partner of BakerHostetler’s Cleveland Office. “His achievements serving the citizens of the Northern District of Ohio speak for themselves, and our clients can look forward to him providing that same level of dedicated service, and accomplishing those same kinds of results, on their behalf.”

In his previous government service Dettelbach served for 12 years as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, U.S. Attorneys Offices in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and the Northern District of Ohio as a member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Strike Force, receiving numerous awards including Prosecutor of the Year by the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators, special achievement awards during his tenure at the Department of Justice, and personal commendations from the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the FBI.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, in noting Dettelbach’s departure, said, “As the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Steven Dettelbach has been a consummate public servant, an exemplary leader and an outstanding law enforcement officer. During his time in office, Steven successfully negotiated a transformative reform agreement with the Cleveland Division of Police with emphasis on better use-of-force policies, more training, increased accountability and more robust community engagement. He assembled an innovative coalition of law enforcement and medical professionals to address his district’s opioid epidemic – an approach that became a national model. And he served as an invaluable member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Council under both me and my predecessor, Attorney General Eric Holder. I want to thank Steven for his dedicated service to Ohio and to the nation and I look forward to all that he will continue to achieve in the months and years to come.”

“We are pleased that Steve, who could have joined any number of firms, recognized BakerHostetler as the place to be,” said Steven Kestner, Chairman of BakerHostetler. “Steve was an integral member of our firm, now our clients will benefit from his experience in the U.S. Attorney’s office and his co-leadership of our expanding national White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations team.”

Dettelbach earned his J.D. in 1991 from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, where he served as Senior Notes Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review. He graduated summa cum laude with his A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College in 1988 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.