We recently caught up with Jason McCullough (NY/DC, ’06), Deputy Chief at the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Jason started his career at Davis Polk’s New York office as an associate in Litigation. He later moved to the firm’s Washington DC office, where he was promoted to counsel.
Read on to learn how Jason’s foundational experiences at Davis Polk helped mold and prepare him for his current role at the U.S. Attorney’s office.
After leaving the firm, you were a Trial Attorney at the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice, and you’re now a Deputy Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in DC. Tell us about your work at the DOJ.
I joined the National Security Division (NSD) at the DOJ in 2017. As a Trial Attorney at NSD, I partnered with U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country to prosecute espionage, export crimes, and foreign-state-led cyberattacks. At Davis Polk, I had focused on securities crimes, antitrust enforcement, and corruption; I saw the transition to DOJ as an opportunity to grow and challenge myself in new areas that I found interesting and meaningful. After working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in DC on the investigation and trial of a Foreign Agents Registration Act violation, I moved to that office and continued my focus on national security prosecutions.
The challenge of this practice area is that it is dynamic and constantly evolving, and that is a big part of its appeal to me. Working with law enforcement partners and the intelligence community to address national security threats through the U.S. legal system brings legal, practical, and operational considerations into play. The hardest days involve addressing extremely complex issues, often in arcane areas of law, armed with imperfect information, while operating under severe time constraints. The pace and rigor of the global investigations practice at Davis Polk honed a skill set that has proven invaluable in the national security arena.
What advice have you received in the past that has served you well in your career?
The best lessons that I learned came through my time at Davis Polk. I don’t think anyone expressly delivered it as “advice,” but I have since given the same advice to many, and have attempted to consistently put it into practice myself.
The main advice is that when reporting an issue or strategic decision-point to a supervisor or colleague, you should attempt to present a solution or propose next steps—even if the solution is imperfect.
Why do this?
- Your ideas likely have value because you’re probably closer to the issues than anyone else.
- Even imperfect or flawed proposals can help frame and organize the discussion.
Do you have a memory of your time at Davis Polk that you would like to share?
I have so many great memories; it’s truly a mosaic of powerful experiences and good friendships. To this day, I draw on the lessons that I learned working closely with my colleagues and mentors like Scott Muller and Raul Yanes—often unglamourous days and nights, huddled up in an office, hotel or conference room preparing for an interview or presentation. Many of those unspectacular experiences were deeply meaningful in showing me how the best practitioners truly work.
But probably my fondest memory at Davis Polk took place in my second year at the firm. I was tapped on a Sunday to jump on a plane to Europe. The next day, I was in the air, and I embarked on a two-month stretch of 18+ hour days working closely with Paul Spagnoletti and a few other associates as we crisscrossed Europe and ran a multinational investigation against a deadline for the board of a client company. I was completely hooked on the tempo and the constant assessment of risk and recalibration of strategy. But after two months of the flat-out pace, I was exhausted. As the project came to an end, I found myself in Stockholm with the late Jack Cooney. Our return flight to the United States was scheduled to depart in a matter of hours. We checked out of the hotel, and I was thinking exclusively about the freebies at the airport lounge and passing out on the plane ride home. But Jack had other ideas. Minutes later, we were in a cab on the way to the Vasa Museum, which features an enormous and perfectly preserved 17th century warship. The contrast between an hour wandering the Vasa with Jack and the previous two months of my life was profound, and it delivered a meaningful lesson to step outside and away from work (on occasion, when the partner allows it). That two-month period, including the brief detour to the Vasa, was a formative experience for me both personally and professionally.
You started your career with Davis Polk in the New York office before moving to our DC office. Tell us about what prompted that move.
Funny story. My wife is a DC native, and we met in law school in DC. We moved to New York after graduation, but always believed we were destined to return to DC. When the financial crisis hit in 2008-2009, we took advantage and bought a house in DC, even though we both still lived and worked in New York. We traveled down to DC on the weekends, and we occasionally came down on Thursday night and did WFH from DC on Fridays (before WFH was an acronym).
One Friday, while working from my home in DC, I received a call from DC-based counsel Margaret Ayres, whom I’d worked with as a first year. After exchanging pleasantries, Margaret launched into a 15 minute hard-sell on the DC office in an effort to get me to “leave” New York. When she finished her pitch, she asked if I would consider relocating. I said yes (while sitting in my house in DC). She paused, likely celebrating her success, and then asked how soon I thought I could transition to the office. Without hesitation, I said Monday. She paused again, this time likely wondering if I’d gone mad, and then pointed out that I’d need a place to live. I told her not to worry about it.
A few weeks later, once I’d settled in the DC office, I told Margaret why her sales pitch was so effective. She and I have laughed a lot recounting that story.
Was there an individual (or individuals) at Davis Polk who played an especially important mentoring role for you during your time at the firm?
Scott Muller and Paul Spagnoletti played a huge role in my first few years at the firm. Scott demonstrated and demanded excellence in legal knowledge and strategic thinking. He showed me the mountaintop, and I forever feel like I’m working to achieve that same level of performance. Paul had just made partner when I started at Davis Polk, and he took the time to show me how to plan and organize a team for large-scale litigation and then execute. Working closely with the two of them in the early part of my career felt a little like I was a rookie learning from the legendary head coach and a veteran player.
Upon moving to the DC office after nearly four years in New York, I worked closely with Raul Yanes and Linda Thomsen as the DC office began to scale up from fewer than 10 attorneys. For a brief period, I was the only litigation associate in the DC office and then, as a fourth year, the most senior. Working closely with Raul and Linda and fellow associates Mike O’Neill, Jesse Solomon, Rich Barker, and Fiona Moran was the most rewarding experience of my career at Davis Polk. Raul and Linda placed a lot of trust in the associates’ ability to deliver, and that in turn gave us room to grow and the confidence to perform. I draw heavily from the lessons in leadership that I learned under Raul and Linda.
Looking back at your career thus far, what is one of the most memorable cases you have worked on?
On the afternoon of January 6, 2021, I was asked to go to the U.S. Capitol to help organize the DOJ response to the riot at the Capitol. I reported to the command center for the U.S. Capitol Police and began to interview officers and prepare the first charges filed against those who had been arrested that day. My experience that first night turned into a leadership role in the response by our office. And it ultimately evolved into leading the investigation and prosecution of one of the two cases brought by our office that involved charges of seditious conspiracy. At the conclusion of a four-month trial, we obtained guilty verdicts in May 2023.