Loretta Lynch

BORN: MAY 21, 1959, GREENSBORO, NC

I will wake up every morning with the protection of the American people my first thought.

Loretta Lynch became the first African American woman to serve as US attorney general when she succeeded Eric Holder, who was also appointed by President Barack Obama.

Loretta was exposed to the causes of social justice from an early age. She literally rode on her father Lorenzo’s shoulders during the early years of student lunch-counter sit-in demonstrations and boycotts of the 1960s. She also attended many court proceedings in Durham, North Carolina, with him. Loretta listened to her grandfather’s stories about helping other sharecroppers in the South escape to the North to avoid Jim Crow laws. She was inspired by her mother, Lorine, a school librarian, and her Baptist minister father, who offered the basement of his church to students who were organizing sit-ins to protest segregation.

As a student, Loretta was very focused. She expected and respected excellence, professionalism, and attention to detail. After receiving her Harvard law degree, Loretta worked briefly in private practice. She went on to become a federal prosecutor in 1990, then an assistant prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office, eventually rising to US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. There she forged an impressive career as a prosecutor of violent crimes, civil rights violations, and in 1997, the high-profile case of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was brutally assaulted by uniformed New York City police officers. Under her leadership, the office successfully prosecuted numerous cases involving corrupt public officials, cybercriminals, and terrorists. Loretta also served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank from 2003 until 2005.

On November 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Loretta Lynch as US attorney general. After lengthy Senate delays, she was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 26, 2015, and sworn in on April 27. She stopped serving as attorney general in January 2017 and is now working in the private sector as a litigation partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a high-profile New York law firm.