Garth Hire
Partner
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Phone: +1 415 957 3139
- Duane Morris LLP
Spear Tower
One Market Plaza, Suite 2200
San Francisco, CA 94105-1127
USA
Garth Hire is one of the most experienced former federal prosecutors in the country and a member of the firm’s White-Collar Criminal Defense, Corporate Investigations and Regulatory Compliance Group. During his nearly 24-year career as an Assistant United States Attorney, Garth investigated and prosecuted individuals and organizations for virtually every type of federal crime ranging from securities fraud to murder.
Garth began his career as a litigation associate at two of the world’s largest law firms before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. While there, Garth served in the counter-terrorism section following 9/11 and later focused on violent and organized crime; earning the Justice Department’s prestigious Director’s Award for his work before transferring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
As a federal prosecutor in Northern California, Garth headed the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Section and was Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oakland, California, before finishing his Justice Department career as a member of the elite Corporate and Securities Fraud Section. Garth is both an experienced trial and appellate lawyer; and has tried numerous cases to jury verdict as lead trial counsel and argued several appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Garth now leverages his decades of investigative and prosecutorial experience and deep knowledge of the people and processes at federal and state regulators to guide and defend executives and enterprises as they navigate an increasingly complicated and unpredictable regulatory and enforcement landscape in areas such as securities fraud, insider trading, tariff evasion, health care fraud, public and private corruption, commercial trade secret theft, economic espionage, money laundering, human trafficking, and foreign corrupt practices. Garth is a member of the White-Collar Criminal Defense, Corporate Investigations and Regulatory Compliance Group in the firm’s San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and San Diego offices.
Admissions
- California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Education
- University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, J.D., 1996
- University of California, Santa Cruz, B.A., with honors, 1993
Experience
- Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2025-present - U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern and Central Districts of California
- Assistant U.S. Attorney, 2001-2025 - Heller Ehrman LLP
- Associate, 1999-2001 - Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison LLP
- Associate, 1996-1999
Selected Speaking Engagements
- Speaker, "Get Smart with AI: Key Federal and State AI Legal Developments Impacting Employment Decisions, Privacy Rights, Vendor Management and IP Practices," Duane Morris LLP, Zoom Event, April 30, 2025
Representative Matters
- Won jury trial conviction of software engineer for committing securities fraud by engaging in insider trading of major cybersecurity company’s securities that resulted in more than $7 million in illicit profit.
- Convicted search engine company software engineer for engaging in insider trading of cloud computing company’s securities, resulting in approximately $1 million in illicit profit.
- Prosecuted former CEO of Marin-based real estate investment company who pleaded guilty to years-long scheme to defraud investors by engaging in a massive Ponzi-scheme and embezzlement resulting in losses of over $26 million.
- Supervised the prosecution of former California State Assemblyman who pleaded guilty to money laundering, relating to his scheme to defraud a group of private equity investors for mass transit station coffee kiosks that he never opened.
- Supervised the prosecution of fraudster who pleaded guilty to wire fraud following his impersonation of a Goldman Sachs banker as part of a scheme to defraud small business owners in advance fees for nonexistent loans.
- Investigated, in conjunction with the California Attorney General’s Office - Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, independent pharmacies alleged to have committed healthcare fraud by submitting Medi-Cal and Medicare reimbursement requests for prescription medications that patients did not need/did not request.
Investigated, in conjunction with the California Attorney General’s Office – Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, widespread illegal kickback payments made by home health care agencies to physicians in exchange for making referrals of patients for hospice and in-home care even though some of those patients did not require or did not receive home health care services.
Investigated, in conjunction with the California Attorney General’s Office – Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, a major healthcare provider for “upcoding” patient diagnoses to fraudulently increase Medi-Cal and Medicare reimbursements.
- Supervised the prosecution of Russian billionaire online bank founder who pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return. He paid $508 million in connection with taxes owed based on his false statements and expatriation and renunciation of his American citizenship.
- Supervised the prosecution of Chinese citizen, convicted following a bench trial, for economic espionage and theft of trade secrets related to acoustic wave filters used in technology devices.
Supervised the prosecution of former treasurer of an East Bay city foundation who pleaded guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization.
Supervised the prosecution of a former employee of a green energy solutions non-profit entity who pleaded guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company.
Prosecuted and convicted over twenty individuals, including multiple airport personnel, for circumventing TSA security checkpoints to smuggle narcotics onto outbound commercial flights for distribution throughout the United States.
Investigated, in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, the Federal Reserve, and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, the collapse and failure of a large financial institution based in Northern California.
Supervised the prosecution of a Singapore-based shipping company that pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and paid a $1.65 million fine related to its dumping of oily bilge waste into the Pacific Ocean.
Supervised the prosecution of Russia-based hacker convicted at trial of hacking into computers belonging to nationally known technology companies and damaging their computers systems by installing malware on them and stealing and using employee login credentials.
Responded to the crime scene and led the investigation which culminated in the indictment and conviction of an active-duty U.S. Air Force airman and a co-conspirator who both identified as part of the “Boogaloo” movement for the murder of a federal courthouse security officer and the wounding of a second officer.