President Obama's nominees for US Attorneys

President Barack Obama on July 10th announced his intent to nominate several individuals as U.S. Attorneys.

• Dennis Burke, District of Arizona
• Steven Dettelbach, Northern District of Ohio
• Brendan Johnson, District of South Dakota
• Karen Loeffler, District of Alaska
• Florence T. Nakakuni, District of Hawaii
• Carter M. Stewart, Southern District of Ohio

Dennis Burke:
Nominee for U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona
Dennis Burke, 46, is a Senior Advisor to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano. From 2003 to 2008, Burke served as Governor Napolitano’s Chief of Staff. From 1999 to 2003, Burke worked in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. From 1997 to 1999, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Arizona. Prior to that, Burke held a number of positions in the Federal Government, including the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Department of Justice, and the White House. After law school, Burke was a clerk for the Honorable James Moeller on the Arizona Supreme Court. Burke graduated from Georgetown University (1985) and University of Arizona, College of Law (1988).

Steven Dettelbach:
Nominee for U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio
Steven Dettelbach, 43, is a partner with Baker & Hostettler in Cleveland Ohio, where he has worked since 2006. He also currently serves as a Commissioner on the Ohio Ethics Commission. From 2003 to 2006, Dettelbach served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Ohio. Prior to that, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief in the Southern District of Maryland, from 1997 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, Dettelbach served as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. From 1992 to 1997, he was an attorney in the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section at the Department of Justice – first as a Trial Attorney and then as Acting Deputy Chief. Dettelbach graduated from Dartmouth College (1988) and Harvard Law School (1991).

Brendan Johnson:
Nominee for U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota
Brendan Johnson, 34, is a partner at Johnson, Heidepriem, Abdallah and Johnson, LLP, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a law firm he joined in 2005. From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Johnson was a state prosecutor in the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Office, where he tried a wide range of criminal felonies and misdemeanors. Following graduation from law school, Johnson clerked for Judge Karen Schreier on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota. Mr. Johnson graduated from the University of South Dakota (1998) the University of Virginia School of Law (2001).

Karen Loeffler:
Nominee for U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska
Karen Loeffler, 52, has been an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the District of Alaska for twenty years and currently as its interim United States Attorney. From 1986 to 1989, she was an Assistant District Attorney for the State of Alaska and, for the last 14 months of her tenure there, she served on detail as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. From 1985 to 1986, she was an Assistant Attorney General in the Oil and Gas Division of the Alaska Attorney General’s Office. From 1983 to 1985, she was a litigation associate at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis. Ms. Loeffler graduated from Dartmouth College (1979) and Harvard Law School (1983).

Florence T. Nakakuni:
Nominee for U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii
Florence T. Nakakuni, 57, has been an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Hawaii for the past 24 years. She presently serves as Chief of the Drug and Organized Crime Section, a position she has held since May 2005. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Nakakuni worked as a counsel at the Navy Office of General Counsel in Pearl Harbor. She spent two years as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Information and Privacy Appeals at the Justice Department. Following law school, Nakakuni was a law clerk for Justice Thomas Ogata of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Nakakuni received a B.A. and B.Ed. from University of Hawaii – Manoa (1975) and graduated from the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law (1978).

Carter M. Stewart:
Nominee for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio
Carter M. Stewart, 40, is a lawyer at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP in Columbus, Ohio, where he has worked since 2005. From 2003 to 2005, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of California. From 1999 to 2002, Stewart was a litigation associate at Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco. Following law school, Stewart held two judicial clerkships – first for Judge Robert Carter on the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York and then for Judge Raymond Finch on the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands. Stewart graduated from Stanford University (1991), received a master’s degree in education from Columbia University (1995), and graduated from Harvard Law School (1997).