WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced the appointment of Rachel K. Paulose to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Ms. Paulose will serve under an Attorney General Appointment. She will succeed Thomas B. Heffelfinger, who will resign from the position on February 28, 2006.
Ms. Paulose currently serves as Senior Counsel to Acting Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, and she is also the Department’s Special Counsel for Health Care Fraud. In this capacity, Paulose handles a broad array of matters, including the Department’s criminal litigation, corporate fraud enforcement, and policy matters. Paulose is a former prosecutor who served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1999–2002, where she prosecuted both criminal and civil cases for the federal government, including violent crime, health care fraud, and white collar crime. Paulose previously served in the Justice Department as an Attorney General’s Honors Program trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division. Paulose also worked in private practice from 2002–2006. Paulose began her legal career in Minneapolis as a law clerk to the Honorable James B. Loken, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, from 1997–1998.
Ms. Paulose obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Coker Fellow. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota, where she was Phi Beta Kappa and a Truman Scholar.
Ms. Paulose serves on the board of the Minnesota Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, where she has held a variety of local and national leadership posts, including her current service as the Vice President for the Eighth Circuit. She also served on the Board of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Asian-Pacific Bar Association and is active in the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.
The Justice Department also selected James E. Lackner to serve as the First Assistant United States Attorney. Mr. Lackner has worked as federal prosecutor for more than 22 years in the District of Minnesota, and has more than 17 years of experience in criminal prosecution. Mr. Lackner currently serves as the Chief of the Criminal Division, and previously held the position of Senior Litigation Counsel. Prior to joining the Department of Justice in 1983, Mr. Lackner worked for four years in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office from 1979–1983 and for one year at a law firm, Aaron, Aaron, Schimberg and Hess. Mr. Lackner obtained his law degree from Northwestern University Law School, and graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College in St. Paul.
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06-087