Founding Partner
(202) 739-8471
dharbach@hshw.com
David Harbach is an accomplished trial lawyer who has devoted his career to mastering the craft. He has tried over 35 cases to juries in state and federal courts in Texas, and in federal courts in New York, Washington, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, and Arizona. He has served as a prosecutor at every level: state, federal, and international, and has investigated cases of all types, including large-scale racketeering, violent crimes, complex fraud, corruption, campaign finance violations, international crimes against humanity, and violations of national security law. Mr. Harbach’s work has been recognized with the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, and with his induction as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of the Edward Bennett Williams American Inn of Court.
Mr. Harbach’s most recent position was Assistant Special Counsel in the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, in which he co-led the investigation, indictment, and prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump and two others for violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice in connection with the illegal retention of classified documents at the President’s Florida residence.
From 2021 to 2022, Mr. Harbach was an equity partner at a large international law firm, where he represented an investment company plaintiff in a state court lawsuit to attach assets of an individual in satisfaction of a $127 million judgment, and in federal bankruptcy litigation when the defendant filed a fraudulent bankruptcy petition.
Prior to that, Mr. Harbach served for two years overseas as a Prosecutor in the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, Netherlands, where he co-led a team of prosecutors and investigators from all over Europe in an investigation of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Kosovo between 1998 and 2000. He conducted numerous formal transcribed suspect interviews, including of the sitting President of Kosovo.
Mr. Harbach’s service as a federal prosecutor includes tours at the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of Virginia, and at the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C. In New York, he conducted five jury trials while serving in the gangs unit, including cases charging racketeering and capital murder.
In Virginia, he led the Richmond Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, comprised of 21 AUSAs and 20 support staff. He also carried a personal caseload and led a year-long investigation and trial of an arson-for-profit scheme that uncovered and developed evidence of over thirty fires in Virginia and Florida over a fifteen-year period.
At the Public Integrity Section, Mr. Harbach served as a Deputy Chief while also leading prosecution teams in some of the highest-profile public corruption trials of the last twenty years. These included prosecuting former governor of Virginia Robert F. McDonnell and his wife for corruption offenses in a five-week jury trial; joining the trial team four months before the five-week trial in a case charging former Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi with racketeering, insurance fraud, and public corruption; co-leading the investigative and trial team during a nine-month investigation and month-long trial of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards for federal campaign finance violations in connection with his 2008 campaign for President; and co-leading the trial team in a case charging former Virginia state legislator Phillip Hamilton with bribery and extortion, resulting in the first corruption conviction of an elected member of the General Assembly in the history of the Commonwealth.
Mr. Harbach also served a one-year detail as Special Counsel to FBI Director James Comey, during which he prepared the Director for engagement with President Obama and the National Security Council on a range of policy matters, and served as an external liaison between the Director’s Office and the National Security Council as well as the Department of Justice. For three years, he taught trial advocacy at the University of Richmond School of Law. Mr. Harbach’s career as a prosecutor began in the state system in Texas, where he served for three years as an Assistant District Attorney in Houston. Following graduation from college, Mr. Harbach served for two years as an officer in the United States Navy.