First Assistant United States Attorney

Derek E. Hines

Derek Hines is the First Assistant United States Attorney and supervises the office’s Criminal, Civil, and Administrative Divisions. 

He has worked for the United States Department of Justice as a trial attorney and supervisor in multiple components, prosecuting cases involving public corruption, white collar crime, violent crime, organized crime, and national security. He served as Deputy Chief of the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Senior Assistant Special Counsel for the Office of Special Counsel David C. Weiss.

Over the last decade, Mr. Hines successfully prosecuted some of the most significant public corruption and financial crime cases brought by the Department nationwide, including cases involving police corruption within the Baltimore Police Department and Philadelphia Police Department, money laundering by a criminal defense lawyer, bribery of a state legislator, obstruction by an FBI confidential source with ties to Russian foreign intelligence, and tax crimes by a Baltimore Police Department Commissioner and lawyer/businessman.  

For his work on these cases, Mr. Hines has received several awards, including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland’s Barney D. Skolnik Award, and the DEA Task Force Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year Award.

Before joining the Department, Mr. Hines was the General Counsel of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation and its businesses in Montana, where he litigated cases advocating for the rights of Native Americans. He previously worked at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Philadelphia and served as Special Counsel to the former Director of the FBI, Louis J. Freeh, in his appointment overseeing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill multidistrict litigation.

Mr. Hines grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and attended Franklin and Marshall College where he graduated with honors. He graduated magna cum laude from the Villanova University School of Law and then clerked for United States District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Hines is an adjunct professor at Villanova University School of Law. He resides in Montgomery County and serves his community as a volunteer firefighter.