Sherry Hartel Haus

Sherry Haus is a partner in Downey Brand's litigation practice group and serves as the firm's General Counsel.

As General Counsel, Sherry Haus manages Downey Brand’s legal affairs, and serves as counselor to the Firm’s attorneys at all levels. She oversees and advises on a vast range of matters, including litigation, policy development and enforcement, risk management, compliance, ethics, and insurance matters.

In addition to her responsibilities to the firm, Sherry is a seasoned litigator with deep experience in white collar criminal defense, securities litigation and counseling, and internal investigations. A former federal prosecutor and a former special assistant district attorney, Sherry has tried many cases to verdict in federal and state courts.

Sherry’s current practice focuses on complex business litigation and white collar investigations and criminal defense, as well as on advising and representing lawyers and law firms.

Sherry has extensive experience counseling, handling government investigations, and litigating on behalf of public companies, as well as officers and directors, in both civil and criminal matters, including parallel civil and criminal federal investigations. She has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and financial institutions in investigations by DOJ, the SEC, and other government agencies. Sherry provides guidance on compliance policies and issues such as anti-money laundering requirements and conducts internal investigations for companies and their audit committees. Sherry was part of the trial team for Howard v. Hui, one of very few shareholder securities class action cases tried to verdict since 1996, and selected by The National Law Journal as one of the Top 20 Defense Verdicts of 2002.

From 2013 to 2016, Sherry served as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the Eastern District of California, where she investigated, prosecuted, and tried cases for the white collar criminal division of one of the largest and busiest federal districts in the country. She focused on economic crimes, including tax fraud, financial fraud, public corruption, procurement fraud, healthcare fraud, and cases involving child exploitation. As an AUSA, Sherry successfully tried multiple cases to conviction. She prosecuted a massive unemployment and disability fraud case, involving hundreds of claimants. Chief United States District Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. called the case “one of the longest-running, most sophisticated fraud schemes that [the court has] ever seen.”

Prior to her work as a federal prosecutor, Sherry specialized in white collar criminal defense and securities litigation defense and counseling at a major international law firm.

Sherry is staunchly committed to pro bono legal work in a variety of arenas. She has done significant pro bono work in a variety of areas, including immigration, civil rights, constitutional law, diplomatic immunity, and international human trafficking, as well as domestic violence matters. She was a key member of a team that provided legal advice regarding amendments to a country’s peace agreement. She also recently served on a team that drafted legislation to address sextortion as part of a national effort to craft state laws to address what the FBI has identified as “by far the most significant growing threat to children” on the Internet. In 2017, Governor Brown signed SB 500, making California the 5th state to adopt laws addressing “sextortion,” joining Utah, Arkansas, Texas and Alabama. During law school, Sherry worked with environmental amici curiae on the landmark United States Supreme Court environmental law case, Whitman v. American Trucking Associations, Inc., 531 U.S. 457 (2001).

Professional, Community And Pro Bono Involvement

• Capital Stage, Board of Directors
• Sacramento County Bar Association, Criminal Law Section
• California Lawyers Association, Criminal Law Section
• Federal Bar Association, Sacramento Chapter

Honors & Rankings

• Super Lawyers, New England Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2009-2011
• Sacramento Magazine, Top Lawyer, Criminal Defense: White Collar, 2019; Securities Litigation, 2022
• Harvard Kennedy Fellowship (full-tuition merit-based scholarship)
• UCLA Chancellor’s Service Award