David Hall Email & Phone Number

Dave is a partner at Wiggin and Dana LLP, which he joined after more than two decades as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). A member of the Pennsylvania, New York, and District of Columbia bars, he is co-chair of the firm’s Art and Museum Law practice group, and chair of the Cybersecurity practice group. During his 23-year career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the DOJ, Dave received the Director’s Award for Superior Performance, and other awards and commendations from government agencies, including the FBI, CIA, DEA, and ATF. He has also been recognized with the DHS/ICE Excellence in Law Enforcement Award, the DHS/ICE International Achievement Award, and the SAFE Beacon Award.At DOJ, he successfully prosecuted the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (ARMSCOR) and others for violations of the Arms Export Control Act during the apartheid era. He also successfully prosecuted Amir Ardebili, an Iranian arms procurement agent operating in Iran to acquire components for military aircraft and microchips for use in phased array radar. That case is the subject of the book Operation Shakespeare: The True Story of an Elite International Sting, written by John Shiffman, which was featured in the CNN series Declassified.Dave was also the first to prosecute a software pirate operating from China, ending an operation that sold over $100 million in cracked software products used in highly sensitive applications. The case was chronicled in his book CRACK99: The Takedown of a $100 Million Chinese Software Pirate, which was also featured in an episode of Declassified.Dave served as the special prosecutor for the FBI Art Crime Team. He negotiated the return of stolen Norman Rockwell paintings from Brazil and prosecuted Marcus Patmon, an art thief who sold stolen works by Picasso. Other cases Dave prosecuted resulted in the return of Mesopotamian artifacts to Iraq, a prized gold Moche monkey head looted from the royal tombs in Peru, and the long-lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi propagandist and Reich Minister for the occupied eastern territories. Dave served as a naval intelligence officer for thirty years, active and reserve, retiring at the rank of Captain. He commanded three intelligence units and served with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in addition to numerous Navy commands. He also authored The Reagan Wars: A Constitutional Perspective on War Powers and the Presidency and co-authored Stolen Cultural Property: A Risk Management Primer.

Listed skills include Litigation, White Collar Criminal Defense, Civil Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and 13 others.