Seth DuCharme is a strong advocate and excellent lawyer. He is calm under pressure, level-headed, and focused on the issues that matter.

The Legal 500 United States, 2024

Seth DuCharme chairs the firm’s national Government Enforcement & Investigations practice. Seth draws on his experience serving in senior leadership positions at the Department of Justice to represent companies and individuals in the investigation and defense of a wide variety of federal and state regulatory, criminal and civil matters, including cryptocurrency enforcement, national security, cross border regulation, cyber security and data breach response, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) diligence and litigation, Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), export controls, sanctions compliance and anti-money laundering.

Prior to joining Bracewell, Seth served for 13 years in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York where he held various positions, including Acting US Attorney, Chief of the Criminal Division and Chief of the National Security & Cybercrime Section. From March 2019 through July 2020, Seth served on detail to Main Justice, where he served first as the Senior Counselor to the Attorney General for criminal, national security and cyber matters before attaining the position of Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States — the highest ranking career prosecutor in the Department of Justice.

In his various leadership roles at the US Attorney’s Office, Seth supervised some of the Department’s most important cases, including the investigation of a global financial institution for its involvement in an international bribery scheme; the indictment of a Chinese tech conglomerate; the RICO prosecution of the leader of a sex trafficking cult; the arrest and indictment of eight individuals charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents of a foreign nation; and the conclusion of a deferred prosecution agreement over a major financial institution in connection with its potential exposure for international money laundering.

Seth is a frequent media commentator and guest lecturer. Prior to attending law school, he began his career in law enforcement as a Deputy United States Marshal in the Eastern District. After graduating from Fordham University School of Law in 2003, Seth clerked for the Honorable Richard Owen of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and then spent several years as an associate at a prominent international law firm in New York City. In 2021, Seth was appointed to serve on the Criminal Justice Act Panel in the Eastern District of New York.