Overview
Bridget Fitzpatrick has served in senior roles at both the Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has tried more than 30 criminal and civil cases to verdict.
Prior to joining Munger Tolles, Bridget was the Acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia after serving as the Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney for three years. As the highest career official in the largest U.S. Attorney’s office in the country, she oversaw thousands of criminal and civil cases. She also served as the Chief Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she directed litigation at the national level for all SEC enforcement matters and supervised the agency’s trial unit.
Bridget’s extensive DOJ, SEC and trial experience position her well to represent clients facing government investigations and complex financial misconduct or compliance issues. She has the ability to seamlessly pivot to litigation when necessary, with the skill set to lead the most complex cases from inception through trial.
Prior to her government service, Bridget was a white-collar, securities and commercial litigator with an international law firm.
Capabilities
Experience
Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (Jan. 2025)
Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (Jan. 2022 – Jan. 2025)
Bridget served as the Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney for the largest U.S. Attorney’s Office in the country before serving as the Acting U.S. Attorney in January 2025. In these roles, she managed the day-to-day operations of approximately 950 attorneys and professional support staff and oversaw all investigations and litigation across the Criminal, Civil and Superior Court divisions. Bridget routinely coordinated with DOJ leadership, federal agencies, and federal and local law enforcement authorities.
Key prosecutions include:
- Seized $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency from the hack of the Bitfinex global exchange.
- Obtained a deferred prosecution agreement imposing $629 million in penalties and fines against British American Tobacco for illicit tobacco sales to North Korea.
- Convicted the individual who laundered $400 million in cryptocurrency by operating the longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet.
- Indicted a co-conspirator in the hack of the SEC’s X (Twitter) account.
- Indicted a U.S. national and multiple foreign nationals for a scheme to place North Korean workers in IT jobs at more than 300 U.S. companies through the use of a laptop farm and the misappropriated identities of more than 60 U.S. residents.
- Settled False Claims Act violations against a government contractor for $377 million based on decade-long procurement fraud.
- Convicted an attorney at elite law firm of insider trading for accessing confidential client information prior to trades.
Chief Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 2017-2022
Bridget served as Chief Litigation Counsel for the SEC from 2017 to 2022 and held positions at the agency dating back to 2012. As a senior officer and the agency’s top litigator, Bridget worked with enforcement attorneys nationwide on litigated cases in federal court and administrative proceedings and supervised the agency’s trial unit.
She advised the SEC on litigation strategy and risk across a wide array of enforcement actions involving financial reporting, market manipulation, excess fees, audit integrity, digital assets, insider trading, hack-to-trade schemes, foreign bribery, internal controls, fund management fees and executive compensation disclosures. She also supervised staff responsible for bankruptcy, collections, distributions and receivership work, overseeing the return of more than $4 billion to harmed investors.
During her time at the SEC, Bridget personally handled some of the agency’s toughest civil litigation and trials, including:
- Lead trial counsel in SEC v. Wyly regarding a 13-year fraudulent scheme by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Michael’s Stores and other publicly traded companies. Prevailed at trial and led collection litigation over the $300 million judgment.
- Obtained a jury verdict of liability and more than $800,000 in financial remedies in SEC v. Tourre for misrepresentations in connection with a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation marketed by Goldman Sachs on the eve of the financial crisis.
- Led litigation against Omega Advisors and its founder, Leon Cooperman, resulting in a nearly $5 million insider trading settlement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, 2007-2012
As an assistant U.S. attorney, Bridget tried 30 cases to verdict and argued several appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the D.C. Court of Appeals.
More
- Two-time recipient of the SEC Chairman’s Award for Excellence
- George Washington University’s Arthur S. Flemming Award for Excellence in Public Service, 2014
- U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Achievement Awards
- Barrister, Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court
