Before joining Arent Fox, Terree served as the US Attorney for the Central District of California, where he supervised the work of the Criminal, Civil, Tax, and Asset Forfeiture Sections. He supervised all civil litigation and was the final authority on settlements and civil dispositions as well as tax litigation. During his tenure, the office had a large inventory of qui tam cases and was a national leader in asset forfeitures. As a prosecutor, he established and chaired the first Telemarketing/Investment Fraud Task Force in the country and created and headed the Financial Institutions Fraud Task Force for the Los Angeles area. He was also selected to serve on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and the Department of Justice Economic Crime Council.
Terree has received the prestigious US Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, among numerous other awards, has taught at the US Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, and has lectured throughout the nation. He also handled terrorism and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act cases and was the point person in the western US for the Department of Justice’s Intelligence Policy Group. He has been honored by many federal agencies, three United States Attorneys General, and one Canadian agency for his outstanding work in a variety of fields.
After serving as the US Attorney, Terree became the Chief Deputy City Attorney for Los Angeles and supervised more than 525 attorneys. He supervised the office's advisory responsibilities to elected officials, commissions, and other city entities, and the office’s preparation of legal opinions and ordinances. While serving as Chief Deputy, the Office twice argued and prevailed before the Supreme Court of the United States.
In 1994, the Department of Justice selected Terree to serve as a US representative on the Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY). He traveled to Bosnia at the height of the Yugoslav conflict to investigate allegations of genocide and helped present the international arrest warrant case against Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. He was promoted to serve as the Legal Coordinator for the Investigations Section of the ICTY and during his final week at the ICTY, gave the opening statement in one of its first genocide trials. He also served as a consultant to the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal.
While Terree prides himself on “silent victories,” some of his representative matters include:
- Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, pursued civil claims against two major groups of insurance carriers and administrators on behalf of medical providers who were not getting paid;
- Successfully secured the dismissal of charges against a former regional vice president for a publicly traded medical information technology company after the Department of Justice’s Corporate Fraud Task Force indicted him. Terree convinced the task force to drop all charges;
- Secured a non-prosecution agreement from the Brooklyn US Attorney's Office in a securities fraud investigation involving the third largest retail jewelry chain in the country;
- Convinced the Los Angeles US Attorney’s Office not to indict a “target” in a major labor relations fraud case;
- Convinced the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office not to pursue an ethics case against a high profile public official;
- Succeeded in getting a private investigator dismissed from a private civil rights action;
- Served as the lead attorney for the city of Los Angeles in an unfair business practice case against an international public relations firm, and succeeded in obtaining a multimillion-dollar settlement in favor of the city;
- Represented two whistle-blowers who broke open a bribery case in the Oregon prison system and are awaiting a reward from the Internal Revenue Service;
- Served as the lead attorney and crafted a “win-win” settlement in a case involving a disabled jockey and The Jockey’s Guild; and
- Convinced the Los Angeles Ethics Commission to close an investigation of six officials at Los Angeles World Airports.
