President Donald Trump has named 12 new federal judicial nominations, including Indian American Shireen Matthews, a former US Attorney, to serve as a judge on the US District Court for the Southern District of California
Matthews, a partner at the San Diego office of the firm Jones Day, works on internal investigations of companies and defends clients before federal agencies.
Matthews, a magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University with a J.D. cum laude from Duke University School of Law, has in the past served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California from July 2008 to September 2013.
Before entering government service, she was an associate with Latham & Watkins LLP in San Diego.
After graduating from law school, Matthews served as a law clerk for Judge Irma E. Gonzalez of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
In her practice at Jones Day, Matthews says she “helps companies conduct internal investigations and build, enhance, and maintain effective corporate compliance programs.” She regularly defends clients before a range of government agencies including the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services-OIG, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Defense.
She worked on a wide variety of white-collar criminal cases involving allegations of bribery of public officials, defense contractor fraud, false claims, and health care fraud.
At the US Attorney’s Office, Matthews served as the Criminal Health Care Fraud Coordinator prosecuting violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, criminal false claims, and aggravated identity theft.
Her success stories include uncovering a multimillion-dollar fraud involving stolen medical equipment from Camp Pendleton, a health care fraud investigation of a hospital CEO, prosecution of wide-ranging contract fraud by a San Diego-based biotech firm, and obtaining one of the largest individual restitution awards for the Social Security trust fund.
She also has broad criminal trial experience and has successfully briefed and argued several cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
