Hicks was a
law clerk,
Washoe County District Attorney's Office, Nevada in 1968, and was then an attorney in that office from 1968 to 1974, and District Attorney of Washoe County from 1975 to 1979. He entered private practice in
Nevada in 1979, remaining in practice until 2001. Hicks was confirmed by the
United States Senate on November 5, 2001, and received his commission on November 7, 2001. In 2011, he was asked by
Shoshone tribes of Northern Nevada to maintain a 2009 restriction that protected the region's environment against Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp's wish to expand its gold-extraction operations on their land considered sacred. In October 2013, he sent Nevada power broker
Harvey Whittemore to a two-year prison sentence for making illegal contributions to
Harry Reid's campaign in 2007. In February 2015, he granted a preliminary injunction against the Bureau of Land Management's removal of 200 wild horses in Northern Nevada, and the roundup of 166 others with
porcine zona pellucida. In March 2017, he sentenced a man from India to 15 years in prison for plotting terrorist attacks in his homeland from the US. In August 2018, he granted a new injunction in favor of Oracle in the case
Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc., which led Rimini Street to forward $28.5 million in attorney's fees. In November 2018, he refused the
right to strike to garbage collectors employed by Waste Management of Nevada. They were asking for longer, less-supervised lunch breaks. ==Death==