U. S. Senator Barbara Boxer yesterday praised President Obama’s nomination of attorney Melinda Haag to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. Senator Boxer recommended Haag’s nomination to the White House after a thorough interview and vetting process by her bipartisan advisory committee, which is chaired by Minami Tamaki LLP partner Jack W. Lee.

Senator Boxer said, “I am so pleased the President has nominated veteran attorney Melinda Haag to serve as the top federal prosecutor in San Francisco. She is well respected in the California legal community and will bring more than two decades of experience handling white collar crime cases to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

Since 2003, Haag has been a partner at San Francisco-based Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in the White Collar Criminal Defense and Corporate Investigations Group, which handles cases involving fraud, antitrust violations, environmental crimes, health care fraud and other corporate matters. Before that, she was recruited by former U.S. Attorney and current FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve in the San Francisco U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she headed the White Collar Crime Unit and was the deputy chief of the General Crimes Unit. Haag also has experience as a prosecutor in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Haag received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California San Diego and she earned her law degree at UC Berkeley.

The Northern District of California stretches from the Monterey Coast in the south to California’s northern border with Oregon and from the Pacific Ocean in the west nearly to Sacramento in the east. More than 7.3 million people live in the district.