Between his service as United States Attorney and his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Garcia was a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Originally intending to be a journalist, Garcia earned undergraduate and master's degrees in English literature from SUNY Binghamton and the College of William & Mary, respectively.

[4] Within months of joining the Office, Garcia was assigned to the trial team prosecuting four defendants for perpetrating the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

[5] For his work on that case, Garcia received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the highest reward presented by the U.S. Department of Justice.

For his work on that case, Garcia received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service and the CIA's Agency Seal Medallion for his efforts coordinating with the intelligence community.

[8][9] On March 19, 2005, Garcia announced a record $11 million civil immigration settlement with Walmart for its use of several hundred undocumented janitorial workers.

While vice president, he served on Interpol's executive committee, the body charged with overseeing the budget and strategic direction of the agency.

[15] In the international domain, his office "successfully prosecuted corruption cases stemming from the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.

[11] On July 17, 2012, in the wake of announced anti-corruption reforms by Sepp Blatter, the president of the world association football governing body FIFA,[20] the organization appointed U.S. lawyer Garcia as the chairman of the investigative chamber of FIFA Ethics Committee, while German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert was appointed as the chairman of the Ethics Committee's adjudication chamber.

[25] FIFA welcomed "the fact that a degree of closure has been reached," while the Associated Press wrote that the Eckert summary "was denounced by critics as a whitewash.

[29][30] In 2017, Adam Goldman of The New York Times reported Garcia was viewed favorably by some FBI agents as he was considered to replace James Comey.

[31] Garcia has been on the board of trustees of El Museo del Barrio, a Manhattan museum specializing in Latin American and Caribbean art, since 2010.