Tom Connolly serves as chair of HWG’s litigation practice.  Routinely recognized as one of the leading practitioners in his area, Tom focuses on trial practice and matters of complex criminal and civil litigation, as well as internal and governmental investigations.

Tom has represented a variety of individual and corporate clients in matters including white collar criminal defense, securities and accounting fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), antitrust, environmental, health care fraud, export controls, and matters involving national security. He has also represented clients called to testify before House and Senate committees.

In some newsworthy cases:

• Tom served as lead counsel in the matter of Hatfill v. Ashcroft, a Federal Privacy Act suit brought by Dr. Steven Hatfill against Attorney General John Ashcroft, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, stemming from a campaign of leaks in the government’s investigation of the anthrax attacks.  Dr. Hatfill was fully exonerated by the FBI. The government ultimately paid Dr. Hatfill $5.8 million, one of the largest Privacy Act settlements in history.
• Tom represented one of the defendants in U.S. v. Price, Zaborsky & Ward, a high-profile obstruction of justice case in the District of Columbia Superior Court.  At the conclusion of the two-month trial, the defendant was found not guilty.

Before joining HWG, Tom served ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Eastern District of Virginia and the District of Columbia. During his tenure as a prosecutor, Thomas was lead trial counsel in more than 50 jury trials in matters involving espionage, homicide, RICO, public corruption, bank fraud, government procurement fraud, export control matters, and immigration fraud.

Tom was awarded both the John Marshall Award, the Department of Justice’s highest honor, as well as the Intelligence Medallion, the CIA’s highest civilian honor, for his work in the prosecution of James Nicholson, the highest-ranking CIA official ever convicted of espionage.  Tom also successfully prosecuted David Sheldon Boone, a National Security Agency (NSA) crypto analyst, for spying on behalf of the Russian Federation.

Tom is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a professional organization of the leading trial attorneys in the nation.  In addition, Best Lawyers has identified him as a leading litigator every year since 2004 and Chambers USA ranked him among the nation’s leading white-collar crime and government investigations practitioners.  He has been recognized 10 times in Washingtonian magazine’s “Best Lawyers” in D.C. issue and in the publication’s 2022 “Top Lawyers Hall of Fame” list.