Restructuring The U.S. Attorney's Office - August 2010

Since starting as U.S. Attorney in January, I have focused on aligning our resources with the priorities of the district. We have recently completed a comprehensive restructuring of the office to make sure that we are focusing on the right cases and working as productively as we can.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office needs to be able to address multiple challenges, but it is important to identify the priorities for our district. Our priorities are:

1. terrorism and national security,

2. violent and organized crime,

3. public corruption,

4. white collar crime, including mortgage fraud, health care fraud, and environmental crimes, and

5. civil rights.

In an effort to align our resources with our priorities, we have reorganized the office into eight criminal division units and four civil division units, along with an appellate division and an administrative division. This decision was made after reviewing statistical data, meeting with office personnel, agency heads, judges, attorneys, community leaders and other stakeholders, and examining the organization charts of other U.S. Attorney’s Offices. The prior structure had been created in the 1970s, when we had 35 attorneys. Today, we have 115 attorneys with many new challenges that did not exist 40 years ago. Our new structure will best equip us to address today’s challenges and our district’s priorities.

Change is never easy, but our attorneys and support staff have risen to the challenge with exceptional professionalism. Our citizens would be proud to see the diligence with which their interests are represented every day.

In the coming months, I will provide additional reports to the district to let you know what we are doing, how we are spending taxpayer dollars, and how we are representing your interests. I am hopeful that report will add accountability for the work of this office.

Barbara L. McQuade
United States Attorney