About David H.
David H. Hoffman has moved between public service and private practice for most of his career. He earned a history degree from Yale University in 1984 and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1992. Those academic years set the stage for a series of federal clerkships and government roles that followed.
Early on he served as a law clerk to Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1995. The next year he clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the U.S. Supreme Court. Those experiences placed him at the center of federal appellate and Supreme Court work during a formative period of his career.
After his clerkships he moved into federal prosecution. In 1998 he joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois as an Assistant U.S. Lawyer. That role exposed him to investigations and courtroom work across a wide range of federal matters, and it informed his later interests in government oversight and white collar matters.
In 2005 he took a different kind of public post as Inspector General for the City of Chicago. The office demanded oversight, internal investigations and a steady hand in reviewing municipal operations. The job required both investigative judgment and management of a public office under scrutiny.
By 2010 he was back in academia for a time, serving as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. The classroom allowed him to translate courtroom and government experience into legal instruction. The next year he re-entered private practice at Sidley Austin LLP. In 2011 he became a partner and has served as Global Co-Head of the firm’s White Collar Litigation and Investigations practice. His practice draws on years in public service and federal litigation.
He is admitted to practice in Illinois and before the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Second and Seventh Circuits, and he is admitted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He also maintains membership in the Illinois State Bar. He works from Sidley Austin’s offices, handling litigation and investigations that reflect his background in federal courts and government oversight. He practices at Sidley Austin LLP, where his work centers on white collar litigation and investigations.
