Jenny A. Durkan
.jpg)
On October 1, 2009, Seattle attorney Jenny A. Durkan was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington. She serves as the top federal law enforcement officer for 19 counties in Washington state, leading an office of 137 attorneys and staff.
She was appointed to serve on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee (AGAC), which advises the U.S. Attorney General on policy, management, and operational issues at the Department of Justice. She was also appointed as the Chair of the AGAC Subcommittee on Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Enforcement and is a member of three other AGAC Subcommittees, Terrorism and National Security, Civil Rights and Native American Issues.
During more than twenty years as a practicing attorney, Ms. Durkan represented a wide variety of clients in commercial litigation, personal injury, and criminal cases in both state and federal court. Throughout her legal career, Ms. Durkan has played leadership roles on a variety of public policy matters.
Ms. Durkan served on the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission from 1993 to 1996. She served as the first Citizen Observer on the Seattle Police Firearms Review Board from 1997 to 2000 and two Seattle mayors asked her to serve on Citizen Review Committees for the Seattle Police Department. She also played an advisory role on the establishment of the King County Drug Court and the Mental Health Court.
Active in both the state and federal bar associations, Durkan served a three-year term on the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors. She served on the Merit Selection Committee for the United States District Court, helping select the candidates for appointment to seven vacancies in the federal judiciary in the Western District of Washington. Ms. Durkan’s civic involvement also includes serving on the non-profit board of the Center for Women and Democracy from 2000 to 2009, as a founding Board Member for the Seattle Police Foundation from 2002 to 2004, and as the Chair of the Washington State Attorney General’s Task Force on Consumer Privacy which resulted in legislation that became a national model for identity theft protections.
Ms. Durkan, a Seattle-area native who grew up in Issaquah, graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1980 and received her law degree from the University of Washington in 1985. She is a member of the Washington state and District of Columbia bars.
Ms. Durkan was nominated by President Obama in May 2009 and was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Senate on September 29, 2009.
