Thomas Henry Bienert Jr

Thomas H. Bienert, Jr. has been named Orange County's "White-Collar Lawyer of the Year" for 2011 by Best Lawyers,  and has been elected by the members of the Orange County Bar Association to serve as the OCBA's Secretary for 2011. The former Chief of the Orange County Office of the U.S. Attorney, Tom Bienert specializes in white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation matters, representing both individuals and corporations in state and federal courts.

In addition to his service with the Orange County U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Bienert served as Chief of Criminal Complaints in the Los Angeles Office of the U.S. Attorney, as Associate Independent Counsel in Washington, D.C., and practiced with Irell & Manella and Phelps Dunbar.

Mr. Bienert is a highly experienced trial attorney. His cases span a wide variety of both criminal and civil practice, including all types of fraud, civil rights violations, environmental crimes, health-care matters, public corruption, money laundering, contract disputes, copyright infringement, civil environmental matters, false advertising, trade secret violations, unfair competition and wrongful termination. He has worked on a number of high profile matters, including the Independent Counsel investigation of President Clinton, the Orange County bankruptcy, the UCI fertility clinic matter, the Reginald Denny beating case during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the "Operation Big Spender" corruption investigation of L.A. Sheriff's Department deputies. His last several trials have included multi-million dollar civil verdicts and, in criminal matters, an acquittal of his physician client in a two month medicare fraud trial and a mistrial for his client in the Peregrine Systems criminal financial fraud trial.

An honors graduate of Tulane University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review and Order of Barristers, Mr. Bienert has been an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School and a frequent lecturer on legal issues. He is a former Lawyer Delegate to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and has been recognized as a "Top 50 Lawyers in Orange County" and in "Southern California Super Lawyers" and "The Best Lawyers in America."