Jake focuses his practice on appellate litigation, drawing on his experience briefing and arguing federal criminal appeals before the Fourth Circuit and years of prosecuting complex cases at the trial level as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Over more than a decade with the U.S. Department of Justice, Jake handled cases in the Violent Crimes Section and Special Prosecutions Unit, spanning civil rights violations, public corruption, human trafficking, child exploitation, firearm offenses, and drug trafficking. He has substantial trial experience, including ten federal cases tried to verdict. He later joined the Appellate Division, where he handled all aspects of criminal appeals. He also served as the office’s Civil Rights Coordinator, overseeing civil rights matters across the district, and advised prosecutors on professional responsibility and discovery issues as the office’s Professional Responsibility Officer and Giglio Officer.

That experience on both sides of the federal docket, at trial and on appeal, gives Jake a practical understanding of how cases are built, how they are argued, and what it takes to win at the appellate level.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jake clerked for the Honorable G. Steven Agee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, gaining firsthand insight into how federal appellate judges approach and decide cases. He also clerked for the Honorable John T. Copenhaver, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Jake serves as an adjunct professor at Campbell University School of Law, where he teaches legal research and writing to first-year students.