RACHEL PAULOSE
(1973 – )
We begin our new year, (2015), honoring the very first Indian American ever nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a U.S. Attorney, Rachel Paulose. Not only is Rachel the youngest person, she’s the first Asian American, and the first woman to lead the District of Minnesota.
Rachel earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Minnesota, where she was Phi Beta Kappa and a Harry S. Truman Scholar. She earned national recognition as Chair of the Student Representatives to the Board of Regents, and served as the Commencement Speaker at her University. She earned her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Coker Fellow.
Rachel has a vast and ground-breaking career, beginning in 1997, working as a law clerk under Judge James Loken, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She worked as a trial attorney prosecuting violations of federal civil rights laws. From 1999 to 2002, she worked as Assistant U.S. Attorney, chairing many trials in federal district court. Her cases involved narcotics, violent crime, and economic crime.
After 2002, Rachel devoted herself to working in private practice, focusing on health care litigation and business. Her work also included defense against class action suit demanding slavery reparations. From 2003 to 2005, her work included defense of health care providers and constitutional advocacy.
In 2006, she returned to the Justice Department, served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General. She helped write the guidelines for health care fraud and corporate fraud prosecution. In August of 2006, her nomination to U.S. Attorney in Minnesota was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, on the last day of the 109th Congress.
Rachel has pledged her life, her talents and her skills to fight child pornographers, stating they are becoming more graphic, more heinous and frankly appalling. She has spoken out against urban crime, saying it threatens the American way of life and noted that public officials should be held accountable for their actions. During her tenure in office, she tripled child pornography prosecutions, doubled gun prosecutions and initiated the first ever prosecutions of human trafficking and aggravated identity theft. After inheriting a six figure deficit, she returned a one million dollar surplus to the government. She increased productivity by 20%, recorded the highest ever prosecution numbers in the history of that District, initiated task forces to investigate mortgage fraud, bankruptcy fraud, human trafficking and identity theft.
In addition to her extremely busy and rewarding career, Rachel has immersed herself in numerous civic activities. She has served as the Director of Yale Law School Fund, Scholarship Judge for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, Eighth Circuit Vice President of the Federal Bar Association, Girls State Governor adviser, volunteer for Kristi House, and guest columnist for the Asian American Press. She is also a frequent contributor author to the American Bar Association Preview of Supreme Court Cases. She serves on the League of Women Voters, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Scholarship Selection Judge Trust for Public Land, Board of Directors American Bar Association.
Rachel currently works as a senior counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission. And at the young age of 42, Rachel Paulose has already made a great and enduring statement as one of the greatest First Women In History.
References: Wikipedia.org/wild/Rachel_Paulose U.S.Attorney's Office
