Erek Barron, former U.S. attorney for Maryland, joins D.C. law firm

Erek L. Barron, a former state delegate and the first Black U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, has a new gig at a law firm in Washington, D.C.

Barron will work for the white-collar defense and government investigations practice at Mintz, where he will lead the firm’s crisis management and strategic response team that will include civil, criminal, and regulatory matters.

“Erek is a highly respected lawyer with an impressive background both in public service and private practice,” Bob Bodian, Mintz’s managing member, said in a statement Monday. “His extensive experience in high-stakes litigation, investigations, and corporate matters — combined with his various high-level positions in government — will bring immediate value to our clients across a broad range of industries.”

Besides being recognized for its work on technology, biotech and life sciences, the firm’s website said it was one of 765 U.S. businesses get to a perfect score of 100 from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation on its Corporate Equality Index for LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion.

“The firm has a commitment to core values which includes diversity, and absolutely something that is important to me,” Barron said in a brief interview Monday. “I’m glad to be at a place that sticks by its principles.”

Barron said he began working last week at the firm, where he expects some of the work to mirror work he did as U.S. attorney from October 2021 until he resigned February.

Barron was nominated by President Joe Biden (D) and made history as the first Black U.S. attorney for Maryland when he was confirmed.

“We tackled a lot of big, complex problems across the board in the legal space, civil and criminal, touching nearly every substantive area of the law,” Barron said of his time as U.S. attorney.

In one of the biggest cases of his tenure, the office charged three people in January 2024 for a nearly $2 billion cryptocurrency fraud scheme. Brenda Chunga of Severna Park pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in connection with scheme, in which she allegedly received at least $3 million in proceeds.

Prosecutors charge that Sam Lee, living in the United Arab Emirates, cofounded Hyperfund with Rodney Burton of Miami. The two, with Chunga, promoted the company and sold investment contracts through HyperFund’s online investment platform between June 2020 and November 2022, but began to block investor withdrawals as early as July 2021.

In December 2024, Barron’s office announced the convictions of two people who lied to investors on the development of drugs to treat COVID-19 and HIV, by a publicly traded biotechnology company called CytoDyn Inc. A release from the office said Nader Pourhassan of Lake Oswego, Oregon, received more than $4.4 million from sales of CytoDyn stock and Kazem Kazempour of Potomac received $340,000 personally and his company received more than $22 million.

Prior to his work as U.S. attorney, Barron worked with then-Sen. Joe Biden from 2007 to 2009 as counsel and policy adviser on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs.

Barron, who also worked as a partner at the D.C. firm of Whiteford Taylor & Preston, represented Prince George’s County’s 24th District in the House of Delegates from January 2015 to October 2021.

He co-chaired a work group to assess budget and safety problems with Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and served on the state’s Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council. Its work to assess and improve the state’s sentencing and corrections practices led to the Justice Reinvestment Act in 2016.

Less than a week after Barron resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office, he was honored by his former colleagues in the General Assembly in both chambers.

“Having known Erek for over two decades, I am confident that his leadership, collaborative approach, and successful track record in both the public and private sectors will be a tremendous asset to our D.C. office and to Mintz overall,” said Michelle Lipkowitz, managing member of the firm’s D.C. office.