Friday, July 15, 2011
Page 3
Nathan Hochman Tapped for City Ethics Commission
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has announced his selection of Bingham McCutchen partner Nathan Hochman to a post on the City Ethics Commission.
Hochman did not return a message seeking comment yesterday.
The commission, established in 1990, is charged with administering the public matching funds program, receiving expenditure statements from candidates and office holders, auditing campaign committees, and investigating complaints regarding violations of ethics, campaign finance and lobbying laws.
It is comprised of five members who serve staggered five-year terms, nominated by the mayor, City Council president, City Council president pro tem, city attorney, and controller. Nominations are subject to review by the Rules and Elections Committee and confirmation by the City Council.
Trutanich praised Hochman as someone who “brings a strong personal character and an outstanding and extensive background in the law” to the commission. He predicted Hochman “will be a tremendous asset and resource to the Ethics Commission as it tackles important ethical and campaign finance issues facing our City.”
Hochman’s practice focuses primarily on white collar criminal defense and tax controversy matters. Prior to joining Bingham, Hochman was the assistant attorney general for the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice, a post to which he was appointed by then-President George W. Bush in 2007.
After graduating magna cum laude from Brown University and attending Stanford Law School, Hochman joined the State Bar in 1988 and clerked for U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the Central District of California.
He was an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles from 1990 to 1997. prosecuting over 180 cases, including tax crimes, health care fraud, bank fraud, defense contractor fraud, education fraud, customs fraud, money laundering, bribery, theft against government programs, perjury, obstruction of justice, violent crimes, and a wide variety of environmental crimes.
He served as the office’s environmental crimes coordinator for almost two years and then spearheaded the Los Angeles Disaster Fraud Task Force, which investigated and prosecuted individuals accused of defrauding disaster assistance programs, more than 70 of whom were convicted.
He received the Department of Justice’s Director’s Award for superior performance as an assistant United States attorney, the Inspector General’s Award of Excellence, the Federal Bar Association’s Young Federal Lawyer Award, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association’s Prosecutorial Award.
He left the office to join the law firm co-founded by his father, Bruce Hochman, which came to be known as Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez. In private practice, Nathan Hochman represented defendants and potential defendants in various tax and other white-collar criminal cases, and was also involved in tax and other civil litigation.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company