Naomi Chung

Naomi Chung is a founding partner at Hickey & Chung LLP. She defends individuals and companies in federal and state investigations and prosecutions involving charges such as securities fraud, health care fraud, wire and mail fraud, tax offenses, money laundering, bribery, computer crimes, and conspiracy. She regularly handles parallel SEC enforcement actions for clients who are also facing criminal prosecution, where a misstep in one forum can compromise the other.

Ms. Chung is a trial lawyer and a strategist. She prepares every case as if it will be tried. Last year, she took a difficult federal case to trial twice and both times secured a hung jury, ultimately pushing the government to dismiss all charges against her client. More recently, she secured no prison time for her client in a federal securities fraud case involving more than $6 million in alleged gains. But for some clients, the best outcome is one that never makes headlines: a declination before charges are filed, a dismissal, or a resolution that protects the client's liberty, livelihood, and reputation. Prosecutors negotiate differently with a lawyer like Ms. Chung who they know will try the case. Whether the right path is a negotiated resolution or a verdict, Ms. Chung builds the strategy around the client's goals. Her cases have been covered by CNN, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, KTVU, Law360, and China Daily.

Ms. Chung's practice is not limited to white collar defense. She defends serious state and federal criminal cases of every kind, and she is known for taking on the tough cases that other lawyers turn down. She has extensive Title IX experience, representing students at every stage of the disciplinary process, as well as university coaches, faculty, and employees. She also represents whistleblowers reporting fraud to the SEC and other government agencies.

Ms. Chung carefully manages her caseload to ensure that every client has direct access to her, and she walks into every courtroom knowing her client's case better than anyone in it. That approach has earned her top ratings from clients and peers alike. She has been named to Super Lawyers of Northern California every year since 2020, including recognition for White Collar Criminal Defense from 2023 through 2026, and holds the Avvo Clients' Choice Award along with a five-star rating from her clients.

Ms. Chung is a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel for the Northern District of California, representing indigent defendants in federal court. Her pro bono work includes representing individuals arrested during Black Lives Matter protests, and she mentors formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs through Defy Ventures.

She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Law Library and is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the Asian American Bar Association, and ProVisors. She is fluent in Korean.

Before founding Hickey & Chung, Ms. Chung ran her own criminal defense practice for many years. She earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and her B.A. from Brandeis University.