First Assistant United States Attorney and
Chief of the Civil Division
Peter M. Mansfield has served as First Assistant United States Attorney since January, 2018. He also presently serves as Chief of the Civil Division, a position he has held in office senior management since 2013. Mr. Mansfield’s supervisory experience includes previous service as the Deputy Civil Chief from 2008 – 2013 and supervisor of the office’s Financial Litigation Unit, which is responsible for the enforcement and collection of criminal fines, restitution, and civil judgments in the district. As a supervisory AUSA, Mr. Mansfield has also been the lead editor and reviewer of the office’s civil appeals in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2011.
Mr. Mansfield joined the United States Attorney’s Office in 2005 and has handled both defensive and affirmative civil cases in district and appellate courts as lead counsel. He has taught continuing legal education courses for the Department of Justice, New Orleans Bar Association, and the 21st and 22nd Judicial District Court Bar Associations on a variety of topics, including: federal practice and procedure, legal writing, oral advocacy, and criminal restitution. After graduating from Franciscan University and Ave Maria School of Law, both magna cum laude, Mr. Mansfield began his legal career as a litigation associate at Adams and Reese, L.L.P. in its New Orleans office. Mr. Mansfield is a native of Metairie, Louisiana.
Executive Assistant United States Attorney
Sharon D. Smith serves as the Executive Assistant United States Attorney. Ms. Smith joined the United States Attorney’s office in October 2002 as an Assistant United States Attorney assigned to the Civil Division where, until November 2013, she specialized in prosecuting Affirmative Civil Enforcement cases. In 2004, she was appointed as a unit supervisor overseeing attorneys handling a variety of civil affirmative and defensive cases, including drug diversion, torts, bankruptcy, immigration, land condemnation, FOIA and Title VII. In 2005, she was also appointed the district’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Coordinator and Civil Health Care Fraud Coordinator. While in the Civil Division, Ms. Smith received the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention and the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General Cooperative Achievement Award in 2007 and the Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Integrity Award in 2008. In November 2013, Ms. Smith became the office’s Deputy Executive Assistant U. S. Attorney until her promotion to her current position on May 1, 2014. Prior to her employment with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Smith was a partner at Pulaski, Gieger and Laborde in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she practiced civil defense litigation for 17 years. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 1980 and from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert School of Law in 1985.
Chief of the Criminal Division
Patrice Harris Sullivan began with the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana in 1987. She presently serves as the Chief of the Criminal Division. Since 1997, she has also served as the District’s Criminal Health Care Coordinator, focusing primarily on healthcare fraud prosecutions, including DME, managed care, FDA studies, upcoming, medically unnecessary services, personal care services, nursing home failure of care, home health, hospice, and various other constantly evolving schemes to defraud. From 1987 through 1997, AUSA Sullivan handled financial institution recovery cases, primarily prosecutions involving failed savings and loans.