Iris Lan

Lan began her career in the Department as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where she handled a wide range of criminal trials and appeals. Among other cases, she prosecuted a drug kingpin charged with smuggling over a ton of cocaine;[1] an FCPA case against a former CEO;[2] the Worldcom securities fraud case;[3] and al Qaeda terrorists for the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa.[4] Lan also prosecuted a number of unauthorized disclosure cases, including the leak of classified United States military documents to an Israeli agent in the 1980s;[5] and the leak of classified information regarding a former covert CIA agent.[6] She was later promoted to serve as deputy chief of the appeals unit, supervising prosecutors in briefing and arguing appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During the Obama Administration, Lan also served as a counsel to the assistant attorney general for the Department's National Security Division, David S. Kris, and as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel. This is also when she began serving as an associate deputy attorney general.[7] Earlier in her career, Lan served as a law clerk to Judge William Curtis Bryson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, worked as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and taught at Columbia Law School.[8][9] Lan is an elected member of the American Law Institute.[10]

On November 6, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Lan to serve as a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. On December 2, 2019, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Lan to the seat vacated by Judge Katherine B. Forrest, who resigned on September 11, 2018.[11] On January 3, 2020, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.[12] On May 4, 2020, her renomination was sent to the Senate, along with the nomination of two other New York nominees, Jennifer Rearden and Saritha Komatireddy.[13] Once the 2020 United States presidential election happened, Democratic Senators stopped returning blue slips for all New York nominees.[14] On January 3, 2021, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.[15]