Jacob Licht is a partner of Richards Carrington who brings two decades of civil litigation experience, including serving as a former federal civil prosecutor, to fiercely advocate for his clients. His practice focuses on white collar defense, government investigations, False Claims Act and whistleblower actions, and internal investigations. Jacob also handles a variety of business dispute, fraud, and complex commercial litigation matters, and has experience seeking the recovery of damages from wildfires.

Before joining Richards Carrington, Jacob served for twelve years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, U.S. Department of Justice. At DOJ, Jacob prosecuted civil fraud and other federal law violations in the health care, defense, government contracts, and oil and gas sectors, with an emphasis on leading complex prosecutions pursued under the False Claims Act, including whistleblower actions. He led nationwide investigations, stopped illegal corporate activities, and recovered millions of taxpayer dollars. Jacob also served as lead trial counsel defending the United States in federal court against tort, medical malpractice, constitutional, and other civil claims. He successfully saved his client agencies over $55 million in potential damages through multiple trial wins and successful mediation negotiations.

Jacob also litigated multiple wildfire trespass actions to recover damages from utilities, railroads, and others for negligent and reckless wildfire ignitions. He led the District’s largest-ever wildfire prosecution against a railroad to recover $20 million and require operational changes to protect Coloradans from future fire risk. For this work, Jacob received the Department’s highest honor, the Attorney General’s Award, from then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Jacob served in leadership roles at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue new enforcement initiatives. He prosecuted illegal opioids prescribing as part of DOJ’s Opioids Enforcement Initiative. In 2022, Jacob launched a new civil Environmental Justice Initiative for the State of Colorado to target polluters in Colorado’s most impacted communities. As part of DOJ’s Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, he held top secret clearances and investigated defense contractors for cybersecurity breaches jeopardizing national security interests.

Prior to his government service, Jacob served in operational and legal roles for two commercial real estate development companies, managing all aspects of the development cycle for larger-scale assets, including a 10,000-acre multi-use development project in Panama with conservation and eco-tourism strategies. Jacob leverages this in-house real estate experience to resolve disputes on behalf of his real estate development and construction sector clients.

Jacob started his legal career as an associate attorney for an AMLaw 100 firm’s San Francisco office, and for a Denver-based boutique environmental litigation law firm. He represented real estate, energy, and mining companies in complex environmental enforcement actions brought by the United States and state governments, and in related commercial litigation matters.