Front Office

Jennifer Waier, First Assistant United States Attorney

Ms. Waier has dedicated her career to public service having served as an AUSA for more than 20 years. She has served as a Deputy Chief in the USAO’s Orange County Office since October 2018. Ms. Waier has handled nearly every type of federal criminal case, including complex fraud, public corruption, and violent crime. She is one of the most productive prosecutors in the country, charging over 800 defendants during her tenure. Ms. Waier has tried 10 jury trials and argued multiple appeals before the Ninth Circuit. As an example of her trial work, she was part of the trial team that convicted former Major League Baseball player Douglas DeCinces for insider trading; she convicted a DEA Task Force Officer and criminal defense attorney for bribery; and she convicted a doctor for bribing an IRS Revenue Agent.

Beyond her case work, Ms. Waier has served the Office in various coordinator roles, including the Securities Fraud Coordinator, Financial Fraud Coordinator, the SARS Program Coordinator, and the Extern Coordinator for the USAO’s Orange County Branch Office. Since 2018, she has served as a member of the Office’s Hiring Committee. Ms. Waier has been a mentor to numerous AUSAs, past and present. Outside of the Office, she is currently a Board Member for the Orange County Bar Association (“OCBA”), Chair of the OCBA’s Judiciary Committee, and a Mock Trial Coach for Santa Margarita Catholic High School.

Before joining the Office, Ms. Waier was an associate in the Los Angeles and Orange County offices of Jones Day. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, and her J.D. from the University of San Diego, where she graduated Order of the Coif and founded and served as the first Editor-in-Chief of USD’s International Law Journal.

Joseph McNally, Counsel to the United States Attorney

Joseph McNally is Counsel to the United States Attorney. In this role, he is part of the senior leadership team, advises the United States Attorney on litigation, and help’s implement the United States Attorney’s priorities.

Mr. McNally has served as an Assistant United States Attorney for over 17 years. Since joining the Office, Mr. McNally has prosecuted some of the most significant federal criminal cases in the country ranging from fraud to violent and organized crime matters. Some of Mr. McNally's case work includes the trial conviction of an orthopedic surgeon and convictions of 20 other doctors and health care executives for their participation the largest health care fraud kickback case in California; trial convictions of a federal law enforcement officer and his wife for money laundering and narcotics trafficking; trial conviction of a senior leader of the Mexican Mafia for racketeering following a multi-month trial; convictions of members of an international money laundering organization for laundering $60 million through Los Angeles-based jewelry businesses; and convictions of an Orange County lawyer and business partners for defrauding hundreds of homeowners out of millions of dollars in a loan modification telemarketing scheme. In 2016, Mr. McNally received the U.S. Department of Justice’s prestigious Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work prosecuting a Eurasian organized crime leader and more than a dozen others who were convicted at trial for operating a multi-million-dollar bank fraud and identity theft scheme from state prison. Mr. McNally has tried 15 cases, briefed many appeals, and argued before the Ninth Circuit a half dozen times.

Mr. McNally has held various leadership roles in the Department of Justice, including Acting United States Attorney and First Assistant United States Attorney. In these leadership roles, he supervised the Criminal, Civil, and National Security divisions and more than 250 federal prosecutors. In 2020, Mr. McNally served at the Department of Justice as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy where he advised the Attorney General’s Office and Deputy Attorney General’s Office on criminal law policy and supported vetting judicial nominees. Mr. McNally has served as faculty member at the Department's National Advocacy Center where he has trained other prosecutors. He has served on the faculty at University of California, Irvine School of Law teaching trial advocacy. Before joining the United States Attorney's Office, Mr. McNally clerked for the Honorable D. Lowell Jensen, United States District Judge, in the Northern District of California. Mr. McNally obtained his B.S. from Santa Clara University and his law degree from UC Berkeley.

Christina T. Shay, Executive Assistant United States Attorney

Christina T. Shay is the Executive Assistant United States Attorney. As part of the senior management team, she leads the day-to-day operations of the litigative and administrative divisions, including supervising approximately 250 non-lawyer staff members, the district’s budget, human resources, information technology, community outreach, and media relations.

Ms. Shay started in the office in 2011. She has previously served as the Chief Assistant United States Attorney. Prior to joining the Front Office, Ms. Shay was the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division and the head of Complaints as a Deputy Chief in the General Crimes Section. From 2012 to 2016, she was a member of the Violent and Organized Crimes Section where she investigated and tried child exploitation, drug, fraud, and violent crime cases. Ms. Shay received her A.B. from Harvard College and her J.D. from NYU School of Law. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable James Ware in the Northern District of California and for the Honorable Milan D. Smith on the Ninth Circuit. Before joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Ms. Shay was an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz in New York.

Billy Joe McLain, Associate United States Attorney

Billy Joe McLain is an Associate United States Attorney. He is responsible for implementing Department of Justice priorities and serves as the Capital case coordinator. Billy Joe has been an Assistant United States Attorney for nine years, serving in both the Central and Southern Districts of California. In these districts, he has spent considerable time prosecuting federal murders, the gamut of fraud schemes, public corruption, racketeering and gang violence, drug trafficking, gun crimes, and immigration crimes. He has prosecuted numerous felony jury trials to verdict, most recently obtaining jury convictions in cases involving the gang murder of an unarmed civilian in front of his home and a doctor involved in one of the largest hospital bribery schemes in California history. While serving as an AUSA in the Southern District of California, he was a trial team member of the largest foreign-national campaign-finance-fraud prosecution in the history of that district.

Recently in the Central District, he and his colleagues have obtained convictions for six of the final defendants in one of the largest hospital-bribery-scheme prosecutions in California history; a school official who embezzled over $16 million dollars from a school district serving underprivileged children; a gang murderer and two prison murderers; and a political bribe conspirator. Early in his tenure at the Central District, he and a former colleague spearheaded district-wide and nationally impactful litigation regarding methamphetamine stereochemistry and categorical overbreadth challenges, ultimately proving that California state methamphetamine convictions qualify for federal sentencing enhancements.

He began his legal career at Hueston Hennigan and Irell & Manella, where he practiced criminal and regulatory defense as well as securities, tort, and commercial litigation. He clerked for the Honorable Bruce M. Selya of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Honorable James R. Nowlin of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with high honors, Order of the Coif, and was a member of the Texas Law Review. He graduated from the University of Virginia with distinction.

Kathy Yu, Chief of Ethics and Post-Conviction Review

Kathy Yu joined the Office in February 2016 and currently serves as Senior Litigation Counsel. Since becoming an Assistant United States Attorney, Ms. Yu has prosecuted some of the Office’s most significant violent crime cases. She has tried eleven cases to verdict. Her case work includes the prosecution of a 51-defendant RICO case involving gang murders, assaults, extortion, drug trafficking, and money laundering. During three trials that resulted from this prosecution, Ms. Yu obtained convictions against a Mexican Mafia member and five other gang members, which were subsequently affirmed on appeal. Most recently, Ms. Yu was part of the team that charged and obtained guilty pleas from four Florencia 13 gang members and associates for murdering an LAPD officer as he shopped for a home with his girlfriend. Ms. Yu also has extensive experience prosecuting child exploitation cases, having obtained life sentences against a predator who targeted dozens of children in the Philippines and a human trafficker who recruited and exploited children from foster homes.

In 2020, Ms. Yu received the Los Angeles County Bar Association Prosecutor of the Year Award. She serves on the Office’s Community Outreach and Service Committee. Ms. Yu received her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of California, San Diego, and her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Order of the Coif).