Pitzer in the News 2006-2007 Academic Year

U.S. attorney in Los Angeles to leave post for private law firm

JEREMIAH MARQUEZ
Associated Press

Posted on Tue, Oct. 17, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Debra Wong Yang, U.S. attorney for California's central district, is resigning to take a job with a high-profile private law firm.

Yang is expected to leave Nov. 10 for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she will serve as co-chair of the firm's crisis management practice group.

There was no word yet on a successor, said U.S. Attorney's office spokesman Thom Mrozek.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher boasts a roster of former government lawyers, including Theodore B. Olson, the former U.S. solicitor general, and Robert Bonner, who once led the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles and was once head of Customs and Border Protection.

It also provides legal counsel to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, currently under investigation by Yang's office over his ties to a lobbyist. Under government rules, Yang would be forced to recuse herself from that and all other pending cases involving the U.S. Attorney's office.

"I was fortunate to be able to serve my country as the United States attorney," Yang said in a statement released by the firm. "I am excited to add the skills and experience I have to Gibson Dunn's impressive resources."

Yang, 47, became the first Asian-American woman to serve as a U.S. attorney when President Bush appointed her in May 2002. In 2005, she received the Presidents Award for Distinguished Leadership for Women in Federal Law Enforcement.

Yang was a California state judge from 1997 to 2002. Before that, she worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for seven years in Los Angeles.

Yang earned a law degree from Boston College Law School in 1985 and a bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in 1981. She also clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lew.