King & Spalding announced that former senior Justice Department official Alicia O’Brien has joined as a partner in the firm’s Government Matters practice group in the Washington, D.C., office.
 
O’Brien brings extensive experience advising Fortune 500 companies, global organizations, and CEOs on government investigations and oversight, as well as internal investigations and public policy crisis management challenges. She was previously a partner in the Washington office of Venable.
 
“Alicia’s practice fits squarely within our congressional, federal and state investigations capabilities in Washington, D.C.,” said Wick Sollers, head of King & Spalding’s Government Matters practice group. “She has great experience managing complex congressional investigations, parallel federal investigations, and often, related multi-state investigations and litigation.”
 
Prior to private practice, O’Brien held senior positions at the U.S. Department of Justice in her roles as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legislative Affairs and as an Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Sally Yates, now a King & Spalding partner.  In these capacities, O’Brien routinely advised the Department’s senior leadership on a wide variety of high-profile matters and managed the Department’s responses to inquiries and investigations from Congress, inspectors general, the Government Accountability Office, and other federal agencies.
 
“Alicia is the perfect complement to our deeply experienced congressional investigations practice that had its start 25 years ago when I first worked with former Attorney General Griffin Bell,” said Ted Hester, who is a nationally acclaimed congressional investigations expert and founder of that practice at the firm.  
 
Mark Jensen, managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, added: “Alicia is a talent, and when added to our world-class investigations platform, her expertise navigating the D.C.-driven enforcement process will be immensely valuable to our multi-national clients.”
 
O’Brien received her juris doctorate and bachelor degrees, magna cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law and the University of Maryland, respectively.
 
“King & Spalding’s strong global platform and the strength of its Government Matters practice, and in particular the stellar reputation of its congressional investigations team, is what brought me to the firm,” O’Brien said. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues to help our clients navigate the high-stakes and complex legal challenges that government investigations pose to businesses in the United States and globally.”