U.S. Attorney Announces New Fresno Office Chief

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today the appointment of Kirk Sherriff as the new chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fresno. Sherriff’s appointment follows the departure of long-time Fresno chief Mark Cullers who has been appointed by the Governor to serve as a Judge of the Superior Court for Fresno County.

Cullers, a Sacramento native, has served as chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California, Fresno Division since 2003. Prior to that he served as deputy chief from 1997 to 2003 and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1988 to 1997. Cullers was an associate attorney at Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann and Girard from 1986 to 1988. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. As chief of the office, Cullers mentored many Assistant United States Attorneys, established a tone of collaboration and team spirit and was an outstanding representative of the office throughout the greater Fresno region.

Assistant United States Attorney Kirk Sherriff has worked in the Fresno office since 2002. He initially served for five years in the civil division and joined the criminal division in 2007. Sherriff has handled many of the most complex and high-profile cases in the office and has been the White Collar Unit chief for the last three years. In particular, he has overseen and personally litigated multiple large-scale mortgage fraud prosecutions, which arose out of the financial crisis that so severely impacted California’s Central Valley. As unit Chief, Sherriff oversaw tremendous growth in the office’s white collar practice, and served as a mentor to many new prosecutors. Before joining our office, Sherriff spent six years with a major international law firm in New York and Paris. He is a cum laude graduate of both Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

The Fresno office is responsible for federal criminal prosecution and civil litigation in an 11-county area from Modesto to the Los Angeles County line. It handles federal cases from these counties: Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Tuolumne.