Paul J. Fishman was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey in June 2009; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 7, 2009, and sworn in on October 14, 2009.

As U.S. Attorney, he is responsible for overseeing all federal criminal prosecutions and the litigation of all civil matters in New Jersey in which the federal government has an interest. Mr. Fishman supervises a staff of approximately 140 attorneys and 115 support personnel in Newark, Camden, and Trenton. In addition to his service as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Fishman serves as Chair of Attorney General Holder’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys.

Mr. Fishman has spent much of his professional career in public service as a career prosecutor. He returns to lead the office where he served as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1983 to 1994, during which he served as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Chief of Narcotics, Chief of the Criminal Division, and First Assistant U.S. Attorney. From 1994 to 1997, he was a senior adviser to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States on a variety of law enforcement, policy, legislative, national security, and international matters, as well as on specific investigations and prosecutions. In addition to his public service, Mr. Fishman was a partner in the law firm of Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman, where he headed the firm’s white collar practice prior to becoming U.S. Attorney. He graduated magna cum laude in 1978 from Princeton University and cum laude in 1982 from Harvard Law School, where he was the Managing Editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.