District Judge Virginia Kendall is under consideration for the highly coveted Chicago U.S. Attorney post, left vacant after longtime prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald stepped down in June, according to news reports.
Kendall, 50, was appointed to the bench in 2006 by George W. Bush and served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1995 to 2005. While working as a federal prosecutor, she served as deputy chief of the Criminal Division and as the child exploitation coordinator.
An expert in issues of human trafficking and child exploitation, she has also served on the Attorney General’s National Advisory Committee that looks at those issues and authored a book, “Child Exploitation and Trafficking: Examining the Global Challenges and U.S. Responses.”
She is currently an adjunct professor at the Loyola University School of Law. She is holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and a law degree from Loyola University of Chicago.
The Illinois senators will ultimately recommend a nominee to the president, who will then nominate his choice for consideration by the Senate.
Below is a 2011 video profiling the judge and her path to the federal bench:
