Claremont, Calif. (Feb. 21, 2003) — Attorney General John Ashcroft on Jan. 16, 2003, named U.S. Attorney Debra W. Yang ’81 of the Central District of California and eight other federal prosecutors to his 19-member advisory council for U.S. attorneys.
The panel advises Ashcroft on law enforcement issues.
Yang gave up her post as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge last year to take President Bush’s appointment as the top federal prosecutor in a district that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
At Pitzer, Yang was a double major in Asian studies and political studies. She graduated from Boston College Law School in 1985. She was an associate at two local law firms between 1985 and 1988, then clerked for District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew of the Central District for a year prior to joining Greenberg, Glusker, Fields, Claman & Macthinger. She worked as an assistant U.S. attorney before her 1997 bench appointment form then-Gov. Pete Wilson.
On April 22, 2002, the Senate unanimously confirmed Yang, the first Asian American woman to become a U.S. Attorney.
Yang will serve a two-year term on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of the United States Attorneys.
