A selection committee in Illinois is working to whittle down the list of potential candidates for Chicago U.S. Attorney, a post that was vacated by Patrick Fitzgerald.
Chicago Sun-Times reporters Natasha Korecki and Kim Janssen wrote about the following candidates:
◆ Jonathan Bunge, a former deputy chief of the U.S. attorney’s general crimes section in Chicago, who now works with the Kirkland & Ellis law firm.
◆ Zach Fardon, who prosecuted former Gov. George Ryan in Chicago and was first assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville before going into private practice with Latham and Watkins in Chicago.
◆ Lori Lightfoot, who is the only female and only minority on the list. Lightfoot is one of the city’s leading African-American attorneys and was once the chief administrator at the Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards. Lightfoot works with the Mayer Brown law firm.
◆ Gil Soffer, who worked in Washington, D.C., under former Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip, who is co-chair of the selection committee, has served as a commissioner on the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission. The Harvard Law graduate is National Co-Head of White Collar Defense, Internal Investigations and Compliance Practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.
The reporters also wrote:
The list does not include two candidates who insiders believed would be among the finalists — U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, who has traveled the world educating other jurisdictions on how to institute laws and prosecutorial practices against sex trafficking and child exploitation, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins, who spearheaded Operation Safe Road, which led to charges against Ryan — one of the most significant investigations in the history of the office.
