The Northern District of Georgia is the South’s premier federal white-collar venue. In fiscal year 2024, fraud, theft, and embezzlement made up 18.4% of the cases sentenced in this Atlanta-based court — more than double the national share — with money laundering at over three times and tax crimes at roughly four times their national rates. When federal prosecutors in Atlanta open a file, they bring resources, patience, and a grand jury; the defense response has to match that seriousness from day one.
This page explains the court behind those numbers: four staffed division courthouses, one of the largest district benches in the region, the U.S. Attorney’s Office now led by a court-appointed prosecutor, and the procedural path a case follows. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. represents federal defendants in the Northern District of Georgia through pro hac vice admission under the court’s Local Rule 83.1(B). Chambers USA 2026 ranks Elizabeth Franklin-Best for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, and Best Lawyers in America recognizes her as a 2026 “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice. The page sits within our federal courts directory.
If you have received a subpoena, a target letter, or word of an indictment in Atlanta or north Georgia, we offer a paid, one-hour initial consultation to assess the exposure and the strategy.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Northern District of Georgia
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What territory does the court cover? | 46 north Georgia counties in four divisions under 28 U.S.C. § 90(a) — Atlanta, Gainesville, Newnan, and Rome — each with its own staffed courthouse. |
| Where is the main courthouse? | The Richard B. Russell Federal Building & United States Courthouse, 75 Ted Turner Drive SW, Atlanta. |
| How big is the bench? | Eleven authorized judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 133; as of mid-2026 the court’s directory lists fourteen district judges, led by Chief Judge Leigh Martin May, plus ten magistrate judges. |
| Who runs the U.S. Attorney’s Office? | Theodore S. Hertzberg — appointed interim U.S. Attorney in May 2025 and then appointed by the district court’s judges in September 2025; he is not Senate-confirmed as of mid-2026. |
| What distinguishes the docket? | White-collar weight: in FY2024, fraud (18.4%), money laundering (6.9%), and tax (2.9%) all ran at two to four times their national shares. |
| Which circuit reviews convictions? | The Eleventh Circuit — headquartered in Atlanta, blocks from the district courthouse. |
| What about appeals and § 2255 motions? | The notice of appeal is due 14 days from entry of judgment; a § 2255 motion attacking the conviction is later filed in this same district. |
| What is the first step with the firm? | A paid, one-hour initial consultation — a privileged review of the investigation or charge before decisions harden. |
Key Takeaways
- Four divisions, four working courthouses: Atlanta, Gainesville, Newnan, and Rome cover 46 north Georgia counties under 28 U.S.C. § 90(a).
- Atlanta’s Richard B. Russell Federal Building & United States Courthouse is the district’s hub and one of the busiest federal courthouses in the Southeast.
- Chief Judge Leigh Martin May leads a directory of fourteen district judges — the district holds eleven authorized judgeships — joined by ten magistrate judges under Chief Magistrate Judge Justin S. Anand (as of mid-2026).
- FY2024 sentencing data confirm the white-collar tilt: fraud 18.4%, money laundering 6.9%, and tax 2.9% — each a multiple of the national share — alongside drug trafficking at 30.6%.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office is led by Theodore S. Hertzberg, installed as interim in May 2025 and retained by vote of the district’s judges that September; no Senate confirmation as of mid-2026.
- The office tried the billion-dollar syndicated conservation-easement tax-shelter case to verdict in Atlanta — its lead promoters received 25- and 23-year sentences.
- An appeal from this district travels only a few blocks: the Eleventh Circuit sits in Atlanta, and the criminal notice of appeal is due within 14 days of judgment.
- Motions under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 are filed in this district, where the conviction was entered.
- Our firm appears in this court pro hac vice under Local Rule 83.1(B), pairing national federal practice with the appellate depth Atlanta cases demand.
The Northern District of Georgia at a Glance
Under 28 U.S.C. § 90(a), the Northern District of Georgia comprises four divisions — Atlanta, Gainesville, Newnan, and Rome — spanning 46 counties from the Tennessee line to the south metro. Unlike many districts whose statutory court seats have gone dark, all four divisions here operate staffed courthouses; the court’s locations page lists clerk’s-office hours in each city.
The center of gravity is the Richard B. Russell Federal Building & United States Courthouse at 75 Ted Turner Drive SW in downtown Atlanta, where most criminal matters are heard. The Eleventh Circuit, which reviews every conviction from this district, is headquartered in the same city — a short walk, and a reminder that appellate review here is not an abstraction.
Procedure follows the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure plus the district’s local rules and each judge’s standing orders. In a court this size, the judge-specific layer is thick — criminal scheduling orders, pretrial-conference expectations, and plea-deadline practices vary by chambers, and we build case calendars around them from the outset.
A Big-City Bench: Eleven Judgeships, Fourteen Judges
Congress assigns this district eleven judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 133 — the most of any federal court in Georgia. The court’s own directory, as of mid-2026, lists fourteen district judges: Chief Judge Leigh Martin May together with Judges Boulee, Brown, Calvert, Cohen, Geraghty, Grimberg, Johnson, Jones, Ray, Ross, Story, Thrash, and Totenberg, several of whom continue hearing cases beyond their active commissions. Ten magistrate judges support that bench, led since April 1, 2026 by Chief Magistrate Judge Justin S. Anand.
For a defendant, the practical meaning is randomness with depth: the wheel can assign any of a dozen-plus judges whose sentencing patterns and motion practices genuinely differ. Detention is usually decided first, by a magistrate judge in the Russell building, and the argument made at that first hearing often follows the case for months — we prepare for it as if it were a trial.
The White-Collar Numbers Behind the Reputation
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s FY2024 packet for the Northern District of Georgia counts 477 sentenced individuals, and the composition is what sets this court apart. Fraud, theft, and embezzlement cases were 18.4% of the docket against 8.6% nationally; money laundering ran 6.9% against 2.1%; tax offenses 2.9% against 0.7%. Nearly three of every ten sentencings in this courthouse involved an economic crime.
The rest of the calendar still looks like a major metropolitan district — drug trafficking at 30.6%, firearms at 13.4%, child-exploitation offenses at 3.6% — and resolution patterns are orthodox: 95.6% of FY2024 cases ended in guilty pleas, with 21 trials. The white-collar share is the differentiator, and it shapes everything from how long investigations run to how sentencing arguments about loss amounts are fought.
Federal fraud law itself has narrowed in ways Atlanta defendants should know. In Ciminelli v. United States, 598 U.S. 306 (2023), the Supreme Court scrapped the “right to control” theory that let prosecutors treat deprivation of economic information as wire-fraud property. Two terms later, Kousisis v. United States, 605 U.S. 114 (2025), confirmed that fraudulent-inducement prosecutions survive — but only where the misrepresentation is material. The space between those holdings is where many Northern District fraud indictments are now won, narrowed, or lost.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Atlanta’s Marquee Fraud Prosecutions
The office’s current leadership arrived by an unusual route. Theodore S. Hertzberg was named interim U.S. Attorney by the Attorney General on May 13, 2025; when the 120-day interim window closed that September, the judges of the district court voted to appoint him to continue serving — a mechanism federal law provides when no Senate-confirmed appointee is in place, and his status remains court-appointed as of mid-2026. He spent nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor in Savannah and practiced at a major New York firm before that.
The office’s recent signature work is economic crime at scale. Its prosecutors, with the Tax Division, tried the billion-dollar syndicated conservation-easement shelter case to an Atlanta jury; the two lead promoters were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and wire-fraud conspiracy and later sentenced to 25 and 23 years — among the longest tax-crime sentences ever imposed. Health-care fraud, crypto-asset fraud, and corporate embezzlement cases fill the same pipeline.
Cases like these mature slowly — IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI’s Atlanta field office, and agency inspectors general often work a file for years, with parallel civil audits running alongside. That long runway is the defense’s opportunity: privilege decisions, proffer strategy, and early presentations to prosecutors can redirect an investigation before charging decisions are made.
Federal Criminal Cases in the District
White-collar prominence does not crowd out the rest of federal practice here. The court hears white-collar and corporate matters, public-corruption prosecutions, drug conspiracies, firearms cases, and RICO indictments that sweep in dozens of defendants at once. Every one of them moves along the same procedural track.
That track typically runs: investigation — often surfacing through a target letter or grand jury subpoena — then indictment, an initial appearance and arraignment, months of motions and discovery, a negotiated plea or a jury trial, and sentencing. Stage-by-stage detail lives in our federal criminal process hub.
In document-heavy Atlanta cases the discovery phase is the battlefield: terabytes of records, privilege fights, and loss-amount theories that can swing a Guidelines range by a decade. We staff those fights for what they are — the real sentencing hearing, held early.
Applied Insight: In this district the loss figure is frequently the whole case. Since the Sentencing Commission moved the intended-loss rule into the text of § 2B1.1 itself in 2024, how loss is calculated — actual versus intended, offsets, credits against loss — is a litigable issue in nearly every Northern District fraud sentencing, and it deserves rigorous attention from defense counsel before the presentence report is drafted.
Appeals and Post-Conviction Matters
For convictions entered in this district, appellate review begins almost next door: the Eleventh Circuit sits in Atlanta, and a defendant has just 14 days from entry of judgment to file the criminal notice of appeal. In complex fraud cases the strongest appellate issues — jury instructions on materiality, loss-calculation rulings, evidentiary calls — are made or lost at trial, which is why we brief them as they happen rather than reconstructing them afterward.
When the direct appeal ends, collateral review under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 returns the case to this district — claims of ineffective assistance, constitutional violations, or sentences exceeding lawful limits, all governed by our federal post-conviction relief practice. We likewise pursue compassionate release for clients serving Northern District sentences. None of this work requires a hometown office; it requires command of a national body of law and the record below.
How the Firm Practices in This Court
Our firm appears in this court through pro hac vice admission, and the Northern District’s rule on the subject is specific: Local Rule 83.1(B) permits an attorney in good standing with the bar of any United States court or any state’s highest court — but not an active Georgia bar member residing in the district — to apply in writing for admission in a particular case. We handle that step as routine case-opening mechanics.
The reason out-of-district counsel makes sense in federal cases is that the governing law is not local. The fraud statutes, the Sentencing Guidelines, Brady obligations, and Eleventh Circuit precedent apply identically whether counsel’s office is in Atlanta or elsewhere. Our principal attorney, Elizabeth Franklin-Best, has represented defendants and petitioners in all twelve federal circuits and at the U.S. Supreme Court across more than 330 federal proceedings, including over 100 appeals, and she carries that appellate command into a nationwide practice in federal § 2255 post-conviction litigation, capital habeas, First Step Act § 404 resentencings, and compassionate-release and Amendment 821 motions. She is also the author of Reversing Your Criminal Conviction.
Georgia’s other two federal courts run on different rhythms — the Middle District of Georgia with its drug-and-firearms docket, and the Southern District of Georgia with its coastal drug corridor — and we calibrate strategy to the venue Georgia geography assigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What area does the Northern District of Georgia cover?
The district takes in 46 counties of north Georgia under 28 U.S.C. § 90(a), organized into the Atlanta, Gainesville, Newnan, and Rome divisions. All four division cities have staffed federal courthouses, with the Richard B. Russell Federal Building in Atlanta serving as the district’s hub.
Who are the federal judges in the Northern District of Georgia?
As of mid-2026, Chief Judge Leigh Martin May leads the court, whose directory lists fourteen district judges against eleven authorized judgeships, along with ten magistrate judges under Chief Magistrate Judge Justin S. Anand. Cases are randomly assigned, and each chambers maintains its own standing orders.
Who is the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta?
Theodore S. Hertzberg leads the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. The Attorney General appointed him interim U.S. Attorney on May 13, 2025, and the judges of the district court voted in September 2025 to appoint him to continue serving. He has not been confirmed by the Senate as of mid-2026.
What kinds of white-collar cases does the Atlanta federal court see?
Fiscal year 2024 sentencing data show fraud, theft, and embezzlement at 18.4 percent of the district’s cases — more than double the national share — with money laundering at 6.9 percent and tax offenses at 2.9 percent. Recent marquee prosecutions include the billion-dollar syndicated conservation-easement tax-shelter case tried to verdict in Atlanta.
Which appeals court covers the Northern District of Georgia?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit — which is headquartered in Atlanta itself — hears appeals from this district, along with all federal districts in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. A criminal appeal must be noticed within 14 days of the entry of judgment.
How does a federal criminal case proceed in the Northern District of Georgia?
The sequence runs from investigation through indictment, initial appearance and arraignment, pretrial motions and discovery, then plea or trial, and finally sentencing under the Guidelines. In white-collar matters the investigation phase alone can run for years before any charge appears, which makes early defense engagement especially valuable in this district.
Can an out-of-state lawyer represent me in the Northern District of Georgia?
Yes. Under the court’s Local Rule 83.1(B), an attorney in good standing with the bar of any U.S. court or any state’s highest court may apply for pro hac vice admission in a particular case. Federal criminal law is national, so the substantive defense work does not depend on a Georgia license.
Does the firm handle federal cases in the Northern District of Georgia?
Yes. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. defends investigations, indictments, and trials in this district through pro hac vice admission, briefs appeals to the Eleventh Circuit, and litigates Section 2255 and other post-conviction motions in the district of conviction.
What happens at the first consultation about an Atlanta federal case?
In a paid, one-hour initial consultation we work through what stage the matter is in, who is investigating, the realistic charge and sentencing exposure, and what should happen in the next thirty days. It is a working session under privilege, not a sales call, and it ends with concrete recommendations.
What is a syndicated conservation easement prosecution?
A syndicated conservation easement lets investors pool money to buy land, donate a conservation easement over it, and claim charitable deductions. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta have charged promoters who allegedly inflated appraisals to generate deductions far larger than the investment, bringing conspiracy, wire-fraud, and tax charges. The Northern District tried the largest such case to verdict, and defending these matters turns on appraisal methodology, reliance on professionals, and the line between aggressive tax planning and fraud.
What does it mean that Atlanta’s U.S. Attorney was appointed by the district court?
When an interim U.S. Attorney’s 120-day appointment lapses without a Senate-confirmed successor, federal law lets the judges of the district court appoint a person to serve as U.S. Attorney until the vacancy is filled. Theodore S. Hertzberg holds the office under that court-appointment mechanism as of mid-2026. It does not change the office’s authority or how it prosecutes cases; it reflects only the path by which its leader was installed.
Discuss Your Atlanta Federal Case With Us
A grand jury subpoena from the Russell building, a target letter from an AUSA, a sentence you intend to appeal — each calls for a considered plan, not a reflex. Our paid, one-hour initial consultation puts an experienced federal practitioner across the table from you to build that plan for your Northern District of Georgia matter.