Attorney General: Loretta E. Lynch

Loretta E. Lynch was born on May 21, 1959, in Greensboro, North Carolina. She received her bachelor’s degree cum laude from Harvard in 1981 and her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1984. She practiced law at the New York law firm of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel until becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in 1990. Lynch next served as deputy chief of the General Crimes Section from 1992 to 1993, as chief of the Long Island Division from 1994 to 1998, and as chief assistant to the U.S. Attorney from 1998 to 1999. In 1999, President William J. Clinton appointed Lynch the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Lynch returned to private practice in 2001, joining Hogan & Hartson as a partner in its New York office. While in private practice, she performed extensive pro bono work as special counsel to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and served, from 2003 to 2005, on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In 2010, President Barack Obama asked Lynch to resume her leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. 

Lynch was appointed as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States on April 27, 2015, by President Barack Obama. She led the Department of Justice until January 20, 2017. In 2019, Lynch returned to private practice, joining the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner.