Private Practice

Since entering into private practice in January 2001, Hubbell has represented companies and individuals in federal and state white collar criminal cases.

In June 2006, Hubbell defended the manager of a dredging company in a federal criminal environmental trial, and his client was found not guilty on all counts. The prosecution, lead by the Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section, alleged felony violations of the Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, and false statements to the United States. The case arose from a navigational dredging project in the area of Harbour Town Marina, Hilton Head, South Carolina. The case was closely covered by the media in Hilton head and is believed to be the second federal criminal environmental case ever tried in the District of South Carolina.

In September-October 2003, Hubbell defended a client in a criminal Antitrust trial that also ended with a verdict of not guilty. The trial was held in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was the result of a wide-ranging, 3-year Department of Justice investigation into alleged price-fixing in the United States polyester fiber manufacturing industry. This was the first trial arising out of the Department of Justice investigation. The client was a former employee of one of the four domestic manufacturers of polyester staple fiber. After two weeks of trial, the jury deliberated for approximately four hours before finding the client not guilty. The trial was closely followed by the textile industry, the media, and litigants involved in numerous multi-million dollar class action lawsuits.

U.S. Attorney's Office

After his graduation from law school in 1991, Hubbell became one of the youngest federal prosecutors ever in the District of South Carolina when Attorney General William P. Barr appointed him to the position of Assistant U.S. Attorney.

An Assistant United States Attorney for nearly ten years, Hubbell specialized in the prosecution of complex “white collar” crimes, including international securities fraud, computer crimes, wire and mail fraud, public corruption, environmental crime, health care fraud, immigration offenses, and money laundering.

His career began with an emphasis on the prosecution of environmental crimes, a novelty at the time. Hubbell’s efforts resulted in numerous convictions and one of the first jail sentences ever in the District for an environmental crime—a case in which the owner of a laboratory falsified safe drinking water tests for elementary schools. In addition to several other environmental cases, Hubbell prosecuted the Captain and First Engineer of the Norwegian ship Star Evivva in the largest offshore oil spill case in South Carolina. The spill involved thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil and resulted in the death of about 200 migratory birds. The case raised difficult international and jurisdictional legal issues but was successfully concluded with the conviction of the Norwegian Shipping Company.

In 1996, Hubbell prosecuted the first health care fraud case to go to trial in the District of South Carolina. After a lengthy and difficult trial, the defendant—a nursing home doctor – stood convicted of numerous counts of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid by “upcoding” his services. In addition, the doctor was convicted of money laundering and was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison.

Hubbell prosecuted several high profile cases that became the focus of intense public interest. In Charleston, he prosecuted a state probate judge after it was discovered that the judge was defrauding elderly widows by transferring their land to himself. After the judge received a sentence of imprisonment in that case, he attempted to hire a “hit man” to assassinate Hubbell, the FBI agent on the case, and several other political enemies. After this plot was revealed through an undercover investigation, Hubbell prosecuted the judge for attempted murder-for-hire, at which point the judge committed suicide in prison.

Also in Charleston, Hubbell successfully prosecuted a complex conspiracy case involving members of the Medellin cocaine cartel who attempted to break a kingpin out of the Charleston County Jail prior to his sentencing. The trial lasted over two weeks and was extraordinary for, among other things, the high security surrounding the trial--- including heavily armed federal agents in a helicopter and on rooftops near the courthouse. On appeal in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Hubbell successfully argued the government’s case against famed Miami defense attorney Roy Black.

In Florence, Hubbell prosecuted a difficult circumstantial murder case involving a defendant who murdered his wife’s paramour with a remote-controlled car bomb. The trial lasted two weeks, and the government called over 80 witnesses to the stand—including several scientific experts – to prove the case. The defendant was convicted and sentenced to life.

In 1999-2000, Hubbell recognized that the growth of the Internet had given birth to a new breed of sexual predators who exploit children by trafficking in child pornography and soliciting children for sex via the Internet. After prosecuting several of these cases, Hubbell created the U.S. Attorney’s Internet Child Exploitation Task (“ICE”) Force, comprised of numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agents and prosecutors, to address the problem. Under Hubbell’s direction, the ICE Task Force developed an effective system to detect and investigate ICE crimes through cooperation with Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and the extensive use of ISP and computer search warrants. As a result of the efforts of the ICE Task Force, numerous sexual predators have been sentenced to long federal prison terms and law enforcement agents have gained considerable experience in the prosecution of computer crimes.