It is beyond important for us to recognize those from our past as well as those that are making marks today to be named in future history. Let us continue to teach our young girls of the greatness they have come from, have become, and can be.
Born on May 21, 1959, in Greensboro, North Carolina, Loretta Lynch went on to earn her degree from Harvard Law School. She worked as a litigator for a private law firm before becoming a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York’s Eastern District, eventually making news as a senior prosecutor for the infamous 1997 Abner Louima police-brutality case. She served as U.S. attorney under the administrations of presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and in 2014 was nominated by President Obama to be U.S. attorney general, succeeding Eric Holder. After a long delay, in April 2015 she was confirmed and sworn in, thus becoming the first African-American woman to hold the position.
Background and Education
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, to librarian Lorine Harris Lynch and Baptist pastor Lorenzo Lynch. Coming from a household that was directly involved in the Civil Rights Movement, the young Lynch went on to attend Harvard College, earning her bachelor’s in literature in 1981, and then opted to stay on with the university, graduating from Harvard Law School in 1984.
Career in New York
Eventually moving to New York, Lynch worked as a litigator at the firm Cahill, Gordon & Reindel from the mid-1980s until 1990. It was that year that she took on a governmental position, working as prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney team of New York’s Eastern District. In 1994 she became chief of the Long Island Office, and after several years was appointed top assistant to U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter.
High-Profile Cases and Posts
In 1999, Lynch served as one of the senior prosecutors in the high-profile case of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was beaten and sodomized after being taken into police custody in Brooklyn. Coordinating strategies that included surprise testimony from police witnesses, Lynch and her team were able to secure a conviction for officer Justin Volpe.
The formidable prosecutor would then be appointed twice to the post of U.S. attorney for New York’s Eastern District under two Democratic leaders: The first appointment came in 1999 from President Bill Clinton. After she returned to private practice in 2002, this time as a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP, she returned to the U.S. attorney seat in 2010 under President Barack Obama. She later became chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, and in 2014 coordinated another high-profile investigation, that of Staten Island Congressperson Michael Grimm, who would plead guilty to felony tax evasion and resign.
