A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

VETERAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR JULIE B. PORTER TAKES HELM OF U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE’S CRIMINAL DIVISION

CHICAGO ― Julie B. Porter, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Attorney’s Office who has supervised financial fraud and child exploitation cases and participated in significant trials involving corporate fraud and public corruption, has become the chief of the office’s criminal division, Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced today.

Ms. Porter succeeds Manish S. Shah, who served as criminal chief for two years and was confirmed on April 30 by the U.S. Senate to be a judge on the U.S. District Court bench in Chicago. Prior to Ms. Porter’s appointment, which took effect on Friday, she was chief of the office’s financial fraud section.

Zachary Fardon

“Julie is a great lawyer, a wonderful human being, and a prosecutor with deep understanding and real love for this office and what we do,” Mr. Fardon said.

The chief of the criminal division is third in the chain of command overseeing criminal prosecutions, following the U.S. Attorney and the First Assistant. Just over 120 of the office’s 152 attorneys are assigned to the criminal division, while the remaining attorneys are assigned to the civil division and the western division in Rockford.

Ms. Porter, 41, joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2004. In 2009, she received a Justice Department award for being a leader and role model as a federal prosecutor from the Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. Ms. Porter played a key role as a member of the prosecution teams

• in the corporate fraud trial of Conrad Black and other executives of the Hollinger International newspaper publishing company, and
• in multiple public corruption cases involving the City of Chicago’s Hired Truck program and Operation Board Games.

Ms. Porter is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Michigan Law School. In 2007, she was recognized in the “40 under 40” feature in Crain’s Chicago Business.