Attorney General-Elect Letitia James Announces Co-Chairs of Transition Team

USANEWSONLINE.COM DESK, NEW YORK — Today, Attorney General-Elect Letitia James announced the Co-Chairs of her Transition Committee, five exemplary members of the legal community who will lend their expertise to develop the Office of Attorney General’s initiatives and recruit top legal talent to ensure that the rights of all New Yorkers are protected. The five Co-Chairs have decades of experience at the highest levels of state and federal government and will provide invaluable guidance to Attorney General-Elect James. The Co-Chairs of Attorney General-Elect Letitia James’ Transition Team are: Loretta Lynch, Former United States Attorney General Robert Abrams, Former New York State Attorney General Jonathan Lippman, Former Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals Julissa Reynoso, Partner at Winston & Strawn and Former United States Ambassador to Uruguay Craig Boise, Dean of Syracuse University College of Law “I am honored to have five of the nation’s most well-respected members of the bar partner with me as the Co-Chairs of my Transition Committee. Equipped with decades of experience at the top levels of government and academia, there is no group better suited to help guide the Attorney General’s Office in assembling a team to tackle the most pressing issues impacting our state and country. New Yorkers should be proud to have such leaders fighting to protect their most basic rights,” said Attorney General-Elect Letitia James. “The office of the New York Attorney General stands as the protector of the people of this great state, and Tish James will lead that office with honor and integrity. I am honored to serve as co-chair of her transition team and help build her team of dedicated professionals, who will carry out her commitment to justice and fairness for all New Yorkers,” said Former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “It is an honor to work with such distinguished Co-Chairs to ensure that one of the nation’s most important prosecutorial offices has a smooth transition. The New York Attorney General’s office under Letitia James’ leadership will continue to be a magnet for highly talented and motivated lawyers,” said Former New York State Attorney General Bob Abrams. “I am proud to serve as co-chair of Attorney General Elect James’ Transition Committee. The Attorney General’s role as the top law enforcement official in our state is critical to the well-being of all New Yorkers. I look forward to working together with our esteemed new AG and the distinguished members of the transition team to ensure a seamless handover in January,” said the Honorable Jonathan Lippman, former Chief Judge of New York and Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. “This is a historic moment for the people of New York. I am honored to serve on New York Attorney General James’ transition team as she initiates her tenure as the people’s lawyer,” said Julissa Reynoso, Partner at Winston and Strawn and Former United States Ambassador to Uruguay. “The office of the New York Attorney General has long served as a bastion for those who believe in the law’s ability to right wrongs and achieve justice, and Tish James is an ideal leader for the office in these challenging times. I am thrilled to co-chair this remarkable leadership team to assist Attorney General-elect James as she builds an office that will undoubtedly continue and build upon the office’s legacy,” said Dean of Syracuse University College of Law Craig Boise. Full Biographies of Co-Chairs: Loretta E. Lynch served as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States. Under her leadership the Department of Justice focused extensively on national security and terrorism, corruption both domestic and international, human trafficking, and improving the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Her father, who was a pastor, spurred her fascination with the legal system by taking her as a young girl to watch court proceedings at the courthouse in Durham, North Carolina. He and her mother, who was an English teacher and librarian, instilled in her a love of learning and a passion for public service. Ms. Lynch received her A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College in 1981, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984, where she was an advisor to the first year moot court competition and a member of the Legal Aid Bureau and Harvard Black Law Students Association. In 1990, after a period in private practice, Ms. Lynch joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York—the city she considers her adopted home. There, she forged an impressive career prosecuting cases involving narcotics, money laundering, organized crime and public corruption. In one notable instance, she served on the prosecution team in the high-profile civil rights case of Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was sexually assaulted by uniformed police officers in a Brooklyn police precinct in 1997. In 1999, President Clinton appointed her to lead the office as United States Attorney—a post she held until 2001. In 2002, she joined Hogan & Hartson LLP (now Hogan Lovells) as a partner in the firm’s New York office. While in private practice, Ms. Lynch performed extensive pro bono work for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, established to prosecute those responsible for human rights violations in the 1994 genocide in that country. As Special Counsel to the Tribunal, she was responsible for investigating allegations of witness tampering and false testimony. While in private practice she also served on several boards, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Legal Aid Society of New York. In 2010, President Obama asked Ms. Lynch to resume her leadership of the United States Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. Under her direction, the office successfully prosecuted numerous corrupt public officials, terrorists, cybercriminals and human traffickers, among other important cases. Robert Abrams was elected to four terms as Attorney General of the State of New York. He reorganized the office, creating the modern office of attorney general and launched pioneering efforts in the areas of environment, consumer, and civil rights protection. He also led the office into criminal justice prosecutions and enforcement, and achieved needed changes in the law relating to the insanity defense, organized crime, and victims rights. More than 250 of his legislative proposals were passed and signed into law. Bob Abrams was a national leader among attorneys general serving as the Chair of the Northeast Region of Attorneys General, Chair of the Anti-trust, Environmental Protection and Civil Rights Committees of the National Association of Attorneys General. Governor Elect Eliot Spitzer appointed Mr. Abrams to serve as Co-chair of his policy Advisory Committee on Government Reform for his Transition, Attorney General Elect Andrew Cuomo appointed him Executive Chair of his Transition Committee and Attorney General Elect Eric Schneiderman asked him to serve as Honorary Co-chair of his Transition Committee. In 2010, New York’s Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman appointed him to be a member of the Advisory Council for the Retired Attorney Pro Bono Program. Mr. Abrams began his public service career at the age of 27 when he was elected to the first of three terms in the New York State Assembly. Elected to three terms as Borough President of the Bronx, he represented with extraordinary effectiveness the diverse population of that county, adding new schools, libraries, and housing, as well as park and cultural investments. He was born in the Bronx, graduated from Columbia College and from New York University School of Law. Jonathan Lippman is the former Chief Judge of New York and Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, is Of Counsel in the New York office of Latham & Watkins LLP and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Trial Department. He provides strategic counsel to clients on New York Law and appellate matters nationwide, and is a leader of the firm’s pro bono practice. Judge Lippman served as Chief Judge of the State of New York and Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals from February 2009 through December 2015. During his tenure on the Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Lippman authored major decisions addressing constitutional, statutory, and common law issues shaping the law of New York, the contours of state government, and the lives of all New Yorkers. As the state’s Chief Judge, he championed equal access to justice issues in New York and around the country and took the leadership role in identifying permanent funding streams for civil legal services. Chief Judge Lippman made New York the first state in the country to require 50 hours of law-related pro bono work prior to bar admission and established the Pro Bono Scholars and Poverty Justice Solutions Programs to help alleviate the crisis in civil legal services. He strengthened the state’s indigent criminal defense system, addressed the systemic causes of wrongful convictions, created Human Trafficking Courts across New York State, and led efforts to reform New York’s juvenile justice, bail and pre-trial justice systems. Judge Lippman championed the state’s commercial division as a world class venue for business litigation, reformed the state’s attorney disciplinary system, adopted the Uniform Bar Exam, and succeeded in the creation of a statewide salary commission for judges. Chief Judge Lippman has served at all levels of the New York State Court system in a career spanning more than four decades, including service as a staff attorney, administrator and judge. From January 1996 to May 2007, he served as the longest-tenured Chief Administrative Judge in state history, playing a central role in many far-reaching reforms of New York’s judiciary and its legal profession. From May 2007 to 2009, Judge Lippman served as the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department, dramatically reducing the court’s pending backlogs. In 2008, Judge Lippman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, presented each year by the nation’s Chief Justice to a state court judge who exemplifies the highest level of judicial excellence, integrity, fairness, and professional ethics. Judge Lippman was the 2016 American Bar Association’s John Marshall Award recipient, an award whose prior recipients include Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor. Judge Lippman presently serves as the Chair of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, a 27 person blue ribbon commission, formed to examine the future of the Riker’s Island jail facilities in the context of systemic criminal justice reform. Julissa Reynoso is a multilingual partner who focuses her practice on international arbitration, international litigation, and complex commercial litigation. She also provides U.S. and international clients with strategic advice and risk assessment in managing transnational issues. She advises a wide variety of clients, including governments, financial institutions, companies and individuals. She has managed diverse transnational matters involving the energy, media, sports, real estate, food and telecommunications sectors. Julissa’s extensive experience includes analyzing and advising on complex cross-border matters and disputes before U.S. Courts and Agencies, and conducting arbitrations under the major international rules, including ICC and UNCITRAL, and bilateral investment treaty disputes under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Julissa is the former United States Ambassador to Uruguay. She also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central American, Caribbean and Cuban Affairs in the US Department of State. While in this role, Julissa was charged with developing comprehensive security and rule of law strategies for Central America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the US Department of State, Julissa practiced at a major international law firm, where she specialized in antitrust law, international commercial arbitration and international investment arbitration. Julissa is the recipient of the highest diplomatic honors bestowed by several Latin American governments. Julissa also is the recipient of various public interest awards, including recognitions from Columbia University, New York University, the North Star Fund, the Legal Aid Society and the Hispanic National Bar Foundation. Julissa serves on the boards of several nonprofit and advocacy organizations, and was on the faculty of Columbia Law School and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Julissa serves as trustee for New York-Presbyterian Hospital and for Columbia University. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese. Craig Boise is the Dean and Professor of law at Syracuse University College of Law where his focus is on successfully navigating the disruptions occurring in legal services and in legal education. Before coming to Syracuse, he was Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland–Marshall College of Law and has held faculty positions at DePaul University College of Law, where he was also director of the Graduate Tax Program, and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has taught a variety of tax courses, and his scholarship on U.S. corporate and international tax policy and offshore financial centers has been published in the Texas International Law Journal, the George Mason Law Review, and the Minnesota Law Review, among others. Before beginning his academic career, Dean Boise practiced law at Cleary Gottlieb and Akin Gump, in New York, and at Thompson Hine, in Cleveland, Ohio. He clerked for the Honorable Pasco M. Bowman II, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Dean Boise earned his LL.M. in Taxation from NYU, his JD from the University of Chicago, and his bachelor’s degree in political science, summa cum laude, from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he also completed substantial coursework in piano performance at the University’s Conservatory of Music. Dean Boise is a member of the New York Bar, a former member of the ABA’s Standards Review Committee, and he currently serves on the Steering Committee of the AALS’s Deans’ Forum. Press Release.