David J. Hickton

David J. Hickton received his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he met his wife Dawne Eileen Sepanski Hickton. He began his legal career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond from 1981 to 1982. For more than a decade, Hickton was an adjunct professor at the Duquesne University School of Law, where he taught a course on antitrust. He served on the Board of Trustees at Penn State University from 1977-1980.

Hickton was nominated as U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania by President Barack Obama on May 3, 2010, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 5, 2010.

In May, 2014, Hickton's office brought an indictment against five members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, alleging economic espionage. The defendants were charged with hacking into American entities to steal trade secrets and other information that would be useful to Chinese competitors. Victims included Westinghouse Electric Company, the United States Steel Corporation, Alcoa, Inc., and Allegheny Technologies. His office also indicted Russian hacker Evgeniy Bogachev, one of the world's leading cyber criminals.

In July 2015, his office, in cooperation with the FBI and authorities in 19 other countries, shut down Darkode, the world's most sophisticated forum for international hackers. Darkode offered malware to disrupt operations in computer systems around the globe and offered stolen data ranging from Social Security numbers to passwords.

While U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, Hickton was named to co-chair a national Heroin Task Force. In 2014, he formed the U.S. Attorney's Working Group on Addiction: Prevention, Intervention, Treatment, and Recovery. Community leaders, doctors, behavioral health experts, and parents of people struggling with addiction met regularly to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of addiction and how best to treat it.

Hickton worked to build community awareness and educate the public about the dangers of opioids.His office worked with the University of Pittsburgh to post information online about lethal batches of heroin.

In 2011, Hickton assembled a Community Police Working Group to help build trust between members of law enforcement and the citizens they serve. The group held community-based meetings, developed a Crisis Team, and distributed thousands of surveys to elicit community feedback about community-police relations and safety. In 2015, Pittsburgh was selected by Attorney General Loretta Lynch as one of six pilot cities for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. Following a three year investigation, Hickton secured fundamental changes throughout the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC) to humanely address the issues of unconstitutional confinement conditions for those suffering from serious mental illness and for victims of institutional sexual assault. He also initiated a case study in police-community reconciliation in the neighborhood of Homewood

In 2015, Hickton lead an investigation of Education Management Corporation (EDMC), which resulted in the recovery of $95.5 million dollars, the largest False Claims Act (FCA) recovery of Department of Education funds.. In 2016, Hickton successfully prosecuted former CEO and founder of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Nicholas Trombetta, who plead guilty of conspiracy, where he took approximately $8 million of educational funds for illegal use. In 2016, Hickton also lead the prosecution of Michael J. Ruffatto, who transferred to his personal bank account $5.7 million in funds from U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory that was awarded to the North American Power Group.

Hickton and his wife, Dawne, have been involved in the Loren H. Roth, MD, Summer Research Program in the School of Medicine. Pitt declared Hickton as a Legacy Laureate in 2013. He also received a alumni 225th anniversary medallion, an honor bestowed on alumni who have brought particular honor to the University through their work and service.

In 2016, Pitt’s School of Law named Hickton one of its Distinguished Alumni. That same year, Hickton was named the Attorney of the Year by The Legal Intelligencer. On January 27, 2017, at the 19th Annual LEAD (Law Enforcement Agency Directors) Awards, Hickton was presented with a special recognition award for for his work in the areas of national security and cyber crime.

At the request of Linda Lane, Superindent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, Hickton responded to an incident where a cross was burned in front of an elementary school in the city. He said, the incident was a "notorious sign of hate.." and that the US Civil Rights Section and the FBI were also participating in the investigation.

Hickton is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County. He has been admitted before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and several of the U.S. Circuit Courts. In 2013, Hickton and his wife gifted a $1 million to establish an endowment for the University of Pittsburgh Elder Law Clinic, a clinic which is designed to teach law students practical skills while providing free legal services to low income older adults and their family members.

Hickton has been supportive in many art and children organizations. Under President Bill Clinton, Hickton served on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is an executive board member of the Pittsburgh Public Theater and also served as its president. He was a longtime member of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a non-profit agency that has used arts and culture to reinvigorate Downtown Pittsburgh. He and his wife have six children and one grandchild.