Steven Dettelbach is a seasoned litigator and counselor who serves as co-leader of BakerHostetler’s White Collar, Investigations and Securities Enforcement and Litigation team. He returned to the firm in 2016 after spending almost seven years as the presidentially appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. As U.S. Attorney, Steve ran high-profile investigations and both supervised and personally handled large-scale, crisis-level litigations, many of which involved intense public and media scrutiny. He also supervised a broad docket of complex civil matters, representing both defendants and plaintiffs, and worked closely with and led selection processes for independent monitors.
In his 30-year career, Steve has been involved in nearly every type of criminal, civil or regulatory investigation. He has also served as counsel on both sides of Congressional hearings and investigations. He has served in senior policy roles at the Department of Justice, having been appointed by two Attorneys General to the prestigious Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), where he worked closely with other senior leaders at the department. He also was appointed to Chair the AGAC Civil Rights Subcommittee by both Attorneys General Holder and Lynch, and was the longest serving Chair in the Obama Administration.
Prior to his appointment, Steve served for almost two decades as a federal prosecutor at Main Justice in the Civil Rights Division and in United States Attorneys’ Offices, as counsel in the United States Senate Judiciary Committee and as the Democratic nominee for Ohio Attorney General in 2018. He has tried more than 30 cases to verdict and been involved in criminal matters in more than 20 states and the District of Columbia. Steve has never lost a federal criminal trial.*
*Does not guarantee similar results in comparable matters.