Loretta Lynch

Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under Presidents Bill Clinton (1999–2001), George W. Bush (2001) and Obama (2010–2015). As a U.S. attorney, Lynch oversaw federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island. Lynch is a Harvard Law School graduate. She then practiced law in New York and became a federal prosecutor in 1990, rising to become head of the Eastern District office. She later returned to private law practice until she became the top district prosecutor again. From 2003 to 2005, she served on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York board. In November 2014, President Barack Obama nominated her to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General. In February 2015, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate recommended her confirmation by a 12–8 vote, with all Democrats of the committee and three Republicans in favor. In April 2015, Lynch was confirmed by the Senate by a 56–43 vote, making her the second African American, the second woman and the first African-American woman to be confirmed for the position. She was sworn in as Attorney General in April 2015. Her tenure ended in January 2017. In May 2019, law firm Paul, Weiss announced that Lynch would be joining the firm as a partner in the litigation department. Early life and education Lynch was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her mother, Lorine Lynch, a school librarian, and her father, Lorenzo Lynch, a Baptist minister, both graduated from the HBCU Shaw University. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded on the campus of Shaw University. As a child, she spent hours with her father, watching court proceedings in the courthouse of Durham, North Carolina. Her early interest in court proceedings was increased by hearing stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper and pastor, who in the 1930s had helped people move to the north to escape racial persecution under the Jim Crow laws of the time. She also attended the Governor's School of North Carolina, a prestigious summer program for academically and intellectually gifted high school students.