Gary S. Lincenberg

As one of the top white-collar criminal defense litigators in the country, Lincenberg is often pitted against the government in high stakes criminal trials. However, despite having a fiercely adversarial relationship with them in the courtroom, Lincenberg said he has a lot of respect for federal prosecutors.

“I generally find the white collar criminal practice more enjoyable because there is greater civility between the attorneys than in civil practice”, Lincenberg said.

“In my entire career, while I’ve sometimes disagreed with decisions made by federal prosecutors, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them intentionally act in bad faith,” he continued. “Federal prosecutors generally think before they act, and generally are open to hearing both sides of an issue before making an indictment decision.”

Lincenberg’s was put to the test in 2018 and 2019 in one of the largest environmental crime trials in California history. Lincenberg’s client, Plains All American Pipeline LP, the biggest pipeline company in North America, was accused of criminal negligence for its handling of an oil spill in Santa Barbara County.

The district attorney and attorney general, in a joint prosecution, sought $1.2 billion in fines and seven years probation from Lincenberg’s client.

After a four-month jury trial, however, Lincenberg helped Plains avoid convictions on the most serious charges and most of the other charges, leaving it with $3 million in fines, or 1/400th of what prosecutors sought.

“Gary is an excellent trial lawyer who tenaciously advocates for his client’s interests,” said Megan Prout, senior vice president for commercial law and litigation at Plains. “Gary’s deep experience, strong leadership and stellar trial instincts were invaluable to us during both the pre-trial period and the trial itself. Gary did an outstanding job representing our interests and we are very glad we hired him.”

— Blaise Scemama