Iglesias is speaker at TBA’s Kiroff Seminar

David C. Iglesias, former United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, was a speaker on Oct. 12, 2007 at the Toledo Bar Association’s annual Bench Bar Conference and Kiroff Seminar at the Toledo Riverfront Hotel.

His topic was “What Happens When Discovery Goes Wrong?” but the theme of his delivery was the political firings of eight U.S. Attorneys by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzáles, who subsequently resigned.  

Iglesias was one of numerous U.S. attorneys at the center of the Justice Department’s (DOJ’s) controversial “forced resignations,” which eventually led to the resignation of Gonzáles.  

Iglesias left the DOJ on March 1, 2007, and subsequently testified before the U.S. Senate and House concerning the US Attorney General scandal. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Hardball with Chris Matthews, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Meet the Press with Tim Russert, NPR radio, and other venues.

Iglesias was born in Panama in a tri-cultural and tri-lingual missionary family. He was raised in Oklahoma and New Mexico. He graduated from Sante Fe High School in 1976, from Wheaton College in 1980, and the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1984.

Iglesias served on active duty as a US Navy JAG officer between 1985 and 1988 at the Pentagon and Naval Legal Service Office, Washington, DC. He was a defense counsel in a Guantanamo Bay court-marshal that inspired the movie, A Few Good Men. Then Lieutenant Iglesias defended legendary Navy SEAL Team Commander Dick Marcinko, author of the Rogue Warror books, in military legal proceedings.

After leaving active duty in 1988, Iglesias continued his career in public service by serving as a state assistant attorney general (special prosecutions), and leading legal offices in the Albuquerque City Attorney’s office, New Mexico Risk Management, and the Taxation and Revenue Department.

Iglesias was selected as a White House Fellow for the 1994-1995 year. Iglesias was one of the 17 fellows selected from more than 1,250 applications. He was a special assistant to the US Secretary of Transportation. In 1998, Iglesias was the Republican nominee for New Mexico Attorney General.

Iglesias returned to active duty in late 1999 for two months where he served on staff at Fifth Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain, and onboard the aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. Iglesias is a reserve captain in the US Navy where he serves as Staff Judge Advocate for Readiness Command Southwest in San Diego. He was selected as “Reserve Officer of the Year, US Special Operations Command, 2001.”

In 2001, George W. Bush nominated Iglesias and the U.S. Senate confirmed him to become United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico. Iglesias is married and the father of four children.