Loretta Lynch Bio
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch is an American attorney and former public official who served as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States from 2015 to 2017. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she was the first African-American woman confirmed to lead the Justice Department and only the second African-American to hold the office, after Eric Holder. She is also the second woman to serve as Attorney General, following Janet Reno.
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Lynch built her career as a federal prosecutor, leading major corruption, civil rights, and financial-crime cases in the Eastern District of New York. After leaving government, she returned to private practice as a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, advising on high-profile investigations and litigation.
Early Life and Background
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch was born on May 21, 1959, in Greensboro, North Carolina. She was raised by her mother, Lorine Lynch, a school librarian, and her father, Lorenzo Lynch, a Baptist minister. Both parents were graduates of Shaw University, a historically Black college in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was founded. Growing up in a household rooted in education, faith, and civil rights, Lynch developed an early awareness of the law and its role in American society.
As a child, Lynch spent hours in the Durham, North Carolina courthouse watching proceedings with her father, a habit that sparked her lifelong interest in the legal system. Stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper and pastor who in the 1930s helped Black families relocate north to escape Jim Crow persecution, deepened her sense of the law as a tool for justice. She later attended the Governor’s School of North Carolina, a competitive summer program for gifted high school students, before enrolling at Harvard College.
Lynch earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature from Harvard College in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1984, where she was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. She also joined Delta Sigma Theta sorority as a charter member of the Xi Tau chapter at Harvard. In 2017, she received an honorary degree from Duke University.
Path to US Politics
Lynch’s first legal job was as a litigation associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York City. She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in 1990 as a drug and violent-crime prosecutor, beginning a long rise through the federal ranks. From 1994 to 1998, she served as chief of the Long Island office, where she handled political corruption cases involving the government of Brookhaven, New York, and from 1998 to 1999, she served as chief assistant U.S. Attorney heading the Brooklyn office.
Her early prosecutorial work established her as a tough, independent-minded lawyer, particularly in cases involving public corruption and civil rights abuses. In 1999, President Bill Clinton nominated her to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, a position that oversees federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island. This confirmation marked her formal entry into the highest levels of federal law enforcement and set the stage for her later confirmation as Attorney General.
Loretta Lynch Career
Early Career (1990–2001)
Lynch began her federal career in 1990 as a drug and violent-crime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Over the next several years, she built a reputation handling complex cases, including political corruption matters in Brookhaven, New York. By 1998, she had risen to chief assistant U.S. Attorney, leading the Brooklyn office and helping to direct major federal cases across the district.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton nominated her to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, a position she held until 2001. Her tenure included oversight of the prosecution of New York City police officers in the Abner Louima case, a high-profile civil rights matter that drew national attention. After leaving the office in 2001, she joined the law firm Hogan & Hartson, which later became Hogan Lovells, and from 2003 to 2005, she served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
U.S. Attorney Tenure and Investigations (2010–2015)
On January 20, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to again serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, beginning one of the most consequential prosecutorial tenures in the office’s history. Her office prosecuted Republican congressman Michael Grimm as well as Democratic politicians Pedro Espada Jr. and William Boyland Jr., demonstrating a willingness to pursue public-corruption cases across party lines. She also led complex financial investigations, securing a US$7 billion settlement with Citigroup over mortgage securities and a US$1.2 billion settlement with HSBC over Bank Secrecy Act violations.
Her office supervised the early stages of the investigation into senior FIFA officials, an inquiry that eventually led to the indictment of 14 senior FIFA officials and sports marketing executives shortly after Lynch was confirmed as Attorney General. The case contributed to the resignation of FIFA President Sepp Blatter. For her role in the matter, Lynch was presented with the third annual Golden Blazer by NBC Sports’ Men in Blazers.
Attorney General of the United States Era (2015–2017)
On November 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to succeed Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved her nomination on February 26, 2015, and the full Senate confirmed her on April 23, 2015, by a 56–43 vote, making her the first African-American woman confirmed to the position. Vice President Joe Biden swore her in on April 27, 2015, after a confirmation process that lasted 166 days, one of the longest in the office’s history.
As Attorney General, Lynch led the Justice Department’s response to several major events. After the June 2015 Charleston church shooting, she announced federal hate-crime charges against suspected shooter Dylann Roof and, in May 2016, said the department would seek the death penalty against him. In December 2015, she opened a civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department following the killing of Laquan McDonald, and after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, she traveled to Orlando with $1 million in emergency funding and oversaw the FBI’s investigation. She also delivered the commencement address at Spelman College in May 2016.
Notable Events and Milestones
One of the defining moments of Lynch’s tenure was her private meeting with former President Bill Clinton aboard her Justice Department jet on the tarmac in Phoenix on June 27, 2016, which drew intense scrutiny during the Hillary Clinton email investigation. FBI Director James Comey later testified that the meeting, along with Lynch’s instruction to call the email matter an investigation, was a deciding factor in his decision to act independently in closing the case. A 2018 Justice Department Inspector General report called the tarmac meeting an error of judgment for the public perception it created, but found no evidence of political bias.
Loretta Lynch Career Wins
Across more than two decades in federal law enforcement, Loretta Elizabeth Lynch built a record defined by landmark prosecutions and historic firsts. Her work as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York included major financial-crime settlements, public-corruption convictions, and the FIFA investigation that reshaped international sports governance. She was also confirmed as the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General.
U.S. Attorney and Attorney General Highlights
During her first tenure as U.S. Attorney from 1999 to 2001, Lynch oversaw the prosecution of New York City police officers in the Abner Louima case, a significant civil rights prosecution. In her second tenure beginning in 2010, her office secured multibillion-dollar financial settlements with Citigroup and HSBC and prosecuted elected officials from both major parties. She was confirmed as Attorney General in April 2015, the first African-American woman to hold the office.
Other Wins and Achievements
In December 2020, the National Football League hired Lynch to help investigate allegations of misconduct among the owners of the Washington Football Team, one of the league’s member clubs. Her appointment reflected her standing as a trusted figure in high-stakes investigations. She also received an honorary degree from Duke University in 2017 and the Golden Blazer award from NBC Sports’ Men in Blazers for her work on the FIFA case.
Loretta Lynch Family
Family Background and Lineage
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch was born to Lorine Lynch, a school librarian, and Lorenzo Lynch, a Baptist minister, both graduates of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her grandfather, a sharecropper and pastor, helped Black families relocate north during the 1930s to escape racial persecution under Jim Crow laws. Those family stories of moral courage shaped Lynch’s own commitment to justice and the rule of law.
Personal Life
In 2007, Lynch married Stephen Hargrove. She uses her married name, Loretta Lynch Hargrove, in her personal life. Her husband has two children from a previous marriage.