MCGREGOR W. SCOTT

SACRAMENTO - After McGregor Scott tendered his resignation as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California following the end of President Donald Trump's administration, he took a break for a few months. By the time he joined King & Spalding in June last year, he already had his first big matter lined up.

And it's a very big matter. Gov. Gavin Newsom's office hired him to represent it and the state Employment Development Department to coordinate investigations into California's massive unemployment fraud scandal.

The EDD has estimated that it distributed as much as $30 billion in fraudulently claimed unemployment benefits, especially during the pandemic and its aftermath.

In late November 2020, Scott, as a U.S. attorney, joined a group of district attorneys who wrote Newsom to highlight the fact that many prisoners had received EDD benefits debit cards and to call on him to address the problem.

Now, as a King & Spalding partner, Scott and a small team are helping to coordinate the investigation and prosecution of fraud cases at the local, state and federal levels. They are also helping the EDD enhance and upgrade its procedures for complying with subpoenas and search warrants.

"Our work has been to help EDD improve their internal processes to make that ... a more fulsome process for the law enforcement agencies," he said.

Scott has the relationships in California prosecutorial circles to do that well. He was a deputy district attorney in Contra Costa County, then the district attorney of Shasta County and served as the Eastern District U.S. attorney in President George W. Bush's administration as well as Trump's.

So far, the employment department has recouped $1.4 billion from debit cards that were never or only partially used. He said EDD believes the cards were overwhelmingly sent out fraudulently.

Scott and his team do not prosecute any cases themselves. They do produce a monthly report keeping track of investigations, prosecutions and convictions," he said.

In addition, he is handling white-collar defense matters, such as conducting internal investigations for corporate clients and representing others in governmental investigations. He recently exonerated the CEO of a retail chain accused of ethical violations by an employee. He produced a report on whistleblower allegations for a South Korean company. And he is defending a Northern California company in a state investigation concerning hazardous waste.

"My bread and butter is internal investigations," he said.

His work for the state will continue, too. "The coordination among the law enforcement agencies, that's not going to end any time soon," he said.

Scott is pleased about being called on by the governor. "I don't know that there are very many lawyers in the country who've been hired by both Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom," he said.