FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         USA
MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1995                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
JAMES ALLAN HURD, JR. NAMED INTERIM U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE VIRGIN
ISLANDS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The United States Department of Justice
announced today that James Allan Hurd, Jr. was appointed interim
United States Attorney for the Virgin Islands, pending his
confirmation by the United States Senate and appointment by
President Clinton.  
     Since July 1994, Mr. Hurd had been Director of the Office of
Legal Education for the Executive Office for United States
Attorneys at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
     The President nominated Hurd on July 27, and Attorney
General Janet Reno then requested that the District Court of the
Virgin Islands appoint Hurd as interim United States Attorney. 
The Attorney General routinely asks that nominees for United
States Attorney be installed on an interim basis while they await
confirmation.  Hurd replaces W. Ronald Jennings.
     Hurd has spent most of his 20-year legal career as a
prosecutor.  From 1989 to 1994, he served as the First Assistant
United States Attorney in the District of the Virgin Islands,
having also served in the office from 1980 to 1981 and from 1984 
to 1987.  In addition, he was a Deputy District Attorney in
Denver, Colorado from 1975 to 1980 and then the Chief Deputy
District Attorney from 1981 to 1984.
     He was a partner in the law firm of Holt and Hurd in the
Virgin Islands from 1987 to 1988, and a partner in the law firm
of Pomerantz, Shelby and Hurd, also in the Virgin Islands, from
1988 to 1989.
     He served in the Air Force from 1968 to 1972 and was on
reserve duty from 1979 to 1980.
     Hurd received his B.A. from Howard University in 1967 and
his J.D. from the University of Maryland in 1975.  In 1992 he was
the President of the Virgin Islands Bar Association and the
following year served on the Bar Association's Board of
Governors.  From 1991 to 1993 he was a Commissioner on the Virgin
Islands Law Review Commission.  In 1992 he received a Special
Achievement Award from the Department of Justice and in 1993 he
was given a Director's Award by the Department.
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