The list of candidates under consideration for the coveted Chicago U.S. Attorney post has been whittled down to four, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times.
All four previously worked in the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office and are now working in private practice. The selection committee will forward their recommendation to Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin (D), the Majority Whip, and Mark Kirk (R). Patrick Fitzgerald left the post in June after 11 years on the job.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the four finalists are:
- Jonathan Bunge, partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLPBunge worked in the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office from 1990 to 1999, ultimately serving as Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section.
- Zach Fardon, partner at Latham & Watkins LLP
Fardon served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago from 1997 to 2003, working on the prosecution team of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
- Lori Lightfoot, partner at Mayer Brown LLP
Lori Lightfoot
Lightfoot worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the office from 1996 to 2002. She later went on to work for the city of Chicago in a number of capacities, including the chief administrator in the Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards.
- Gil Soffer, partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLPSoffer served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Chicago office from 1994 to 2000. In 2008, he became counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Later that year he was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General.
Reportedly no longer under consideration are Patrick Collins, partner at Perkins Coie LLP; Virginia Kendall, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois; John Lausch, partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP; and Ricardo Meza, Inspector General for the the state of Illinois. Read full biographies of the finalists here.
