WASHINGTON – Matthew M. Graves took office today as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He succeeds Channing D. Phillips, who had been serving as Acting U.S. Attorney since March 3, 2021.
President Biden nominated Mr. Graves on July 26, 2021, to serve as U.S. Attorney, and the nomination was confirmed on Oct. 28, 2021, by the Senate. Mr. Graves was sworn into office by the Honorable Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell this afternoon in a ceremony at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland made remarks at the ceremony, which was attended by numerous judges, and other dignitaries.
Mr. Graves, 45, is returning to the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he worked for nearly a decade before going into private practice in 2016 as a litigation and compliance partner in DLA Piper’s Washington, D.C., office.
“Having lived in the District of Columbia for nearly two decades, it is a distinct honor to return to the United States Attorney’s Office and to, once again, have the opportunity to serve my fellow community members and to work with this incredibly talented team of public servants,” said Mr. Graves.
In his previous time with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Graves supervised and prosecuted a wide variety of cases as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and later as Chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section. He handled numerous high-profile matters, including successful prosecutions of public officials, international business organizations, government contractors, and defendants engaged in Ponzi schemes and other large-scale fraud. Additionally, he prosecuted scores of cases involving shootings, robberies, kidnappings, and other violent crimes.
Mr. Graves graduated from Washington and Lee University and obtained his juris doctorate from Yale Law School in 2001. He clerked on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the Honorable Richard W. Roberts from 2001 to 2002 and was an associate at WilmerHale from 2002 to 2007, prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2007.
As he took on his new responsibilities today, U.S. Attorney Graves thanked Mr. Phillips for his decades of service with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice, including commending him for his exceptional leadership over the past eight months.
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