Hecker Fink LLP
Lawyers
Mack Jenkins
- Phone(212) 763-0883
- Email[email protected]
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Position
Partner
Career
Mack E. Jenkins is a partner at Hecker Fink LLP and a founding member of the firm’s Los Angeles office.
Mack was previously the Chief of the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Central District of California, the largest such office in the country. While Criminal Chief, he supervised over 180 federal prosecutors and ten criminal prosecution sections in a district serving almost twenty million people. Mack, a highly accomplished trial lawyer, has litigated and tried some of the country’s most influential and high-profile cases. Most recently, he was lead trial counsel in a series of federal trials stemming from his sprawling investigation into corruption within Los Angeles City Hall, each of which led to across-the-board convictions of high-level public officials, billionaire real estate developers, and multi-national corporations. Mack’s landmark Los Angeles City Hall prosecution led to the district’s first ever federal racketeering convictions of a Los Angeles elected official (José Huizar), deputy mayor (Ray Chan), and City executive; 20 other defendants were convicted for corruption-related offenses.
In a Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) matter, Mack was the lead prosecutor in the first federal jury conviction of a sitting U.S. Congressman in several decades (reversed on appeal on venue grounds), which also resulted in criminal resolutions against a former Presidential cabinet-level secretary and a foreign billionaire. Mack also successfully prosecuted former members of a California political dynasty (Ron and Tom Calderon) for bribery and money laundering after a multi-month wiretap investigation into the then state senator. He also oversaw another major multi-year corruption investigation into the nation’s largest utility, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office related to a collusive lawsuit stemming from the LADWP overbilling scandal, which implicated high-ranking lawyers and top Los Angeles officials. Mack also supervised the successful investigation and trial of three-decade politician and former Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Mark Ridley Thomas, related to bribes he received from a prominent dean at the University of Southern California, and also charged a 72-defendant RICO case against the Broadway Gangster Crips, then the largest indictment in the district.
Mack has completed over 17 federal jury trials, including six RICO trials, multiple VICAR murder cases, plus corruption, civil rights, continuing criminal enterprise, and obstruction matters. He has argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals over ten times and was the lead drafter in dozens of appellate briefs.
Prior to his term as Criminal Chief, Mack served as Chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section at the USAO for five years and was a federal prosecutor for almost 17 years. Mack has personally prosecuted hundreds of federal criminal cases and supervised hundreds more, including cybercrimes, corporate prosecutions, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)/sanctions, money laundering, cryptocurrency, kleptocracy, transnational organized crime, human trafficking, domestic terrorism, and national security/counterintelligence.
He has worked closely with executive and elected leadership at each of California’s largest law enforcement agencies, including the California Department of Justice, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and many others, along with national enforcement and regulatory bodies, such as the Securities Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trade Commission, and Federal Communications Commission. He also regularly interfaced with executive management at the nation’s top federal investigative agencies, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), United States Secret Service (USSS), Defense Security Service (DSS), U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-OIG).
Mack is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL). The ACTL is an invitation-only fellowship of exceptional trial lawyers of diverse professional backgrounds that is generally regarded as the country's preeminent trial organization. Membership is limited to 1% of the trial lawyers in each state.
Mack has twice received the Attorney General’s Award (the Department of Justice’s highest award), received the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) Director’s Award (Department of Justice’s second highest honor), has thrice received the California Lawyer of the Year Award, along with being named the FBA’s Peter Mazza Top Federal Lawyer, and a Top 100 Lawyer by the Daily Journal. The Los Angeles Business Journal named him among Los Angeles’s Most Influential and recognized him as a Leader of Influence: Thriving in Their 40s. The Anti-Defamation League awarded him its Sherwood Prize for Combatting Hate and DHS honored him with its Director’s Award. Mack is also a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation, a research institute committed to the principle that a deep understanding of the law is vital to a more just, equitable world. He has received numerous commendations from the country’s leading federal agencies. Mack also serves on the University of California–Irvine School of Law's Board of Visitors.
Prior to his almost two decades in public service, Mack worked in the Los Angeles office of a prominent international law firm where his practice focused on complex civil litigation, entertainment, white collar crime and government investigations. During that time, he was named Volunteer Attorney of the Year by Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono legal services entity, for his successful class action litigation on behalf of a group of developmentally disabled foster children.
Mack is a graduate of Yale Law School and UCLA, where he completed his undergraduate studies and had a brief, albeit inglorious, stint as a walk-on for the UCLA football team.