David Sarratt is a partner in the Litigation Department and co-managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office. A former federal prosecutor, he is a seasoned trial lawyer whose practice focuses on government enforcement actions, internal investigations and complex civil litigation across a broad range of industries. In and out of the courtroom, Mr. Sarratt regularly represents companies and executives in matters before the Department of Justice and other federal and state regulators on matters relating to alleged violations of national security, antitrust, money laundering, fraud, official corruption, government procurement and gaming laws, as well as on other novel enforcement issues arising from new technologies.
Mr. Sarratt is ranked as a leading practitioner for White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations by Chambers USA (2024), where clients describe him as “a very level-headed lawyer, who maintains his composure very well.”
Mr. Sarratt joined the firm in 2014, and since then has handled high stakes matters in nearly every major industry for clients ranging from the largest technology, banking, industrial, entertainment and insurance firms to disruptive startups and entrepreneurs. He has advised multiple financial institutions in resolving or avoiding enforcement actions relating to anti-money-laundering rules, and guided leading firms in responding to multi-agency inquiries involving federal, state, and international authorities. He has represented individual CEOs, board chairs, and other leading executives in fast-moving crisis situations and before Congress, as well as in long-running litigations and criminal prosecutions, and has guided leading institutions in conducting sensitive internal investigations.
Mr. Sarratt also spends significant time representing indigent criminal defendants, including through the firm’s Holloway Project and appointments under the Criminal Justice Act. He is a regular speaker on white collar topics and chairs an annual PLI Conference on Ethics for Government Lawyers.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Sarratt served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York from 2010 to 2014. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Sarratt supervised and participated in a wide variety of investigations and prosecutions involving international terrorism, cyber crime, financial and health care fraud, racketeering and other crimes. He successfully tried numerous cases to verdict and briefed and argued appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Mr. Sarratt served as a law clerk for the Hon. Douglas H. Ginsburg, United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, from 2004 to 2005, and for the Hon. John Gleeson, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, from 2005 to 2006.
Mr. Sarratt received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was an articles editor of the Virginia Law Review. He earned a B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Virginia in 2000.
Mr. Sarratt is admitted to practice in California and New York.