Jenny A. Durkan was confirmed Wednesday as United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington by a unanimous vote of the United States Senate. Durkan will be sworn in as U.S. Attorney by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert S. Lasnik. A formal installation ceremony will be scheduled in the near future.

Durkan served on the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission from 1993 to 1996. She served as the first Citizen Observer on the Seattle Police Firearms Review Board from 1997 to 2000 and two Seattle mayors asked her to serve on Citizen Review Committees for the Seattle Police Department. She also played an advisory role on the establishment of the King County Drug Court and the Mental Health court.

Active in both the state and federal bar associations, Durkan served a three year term on the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors. She served on the Merit Selection Committee for the United States District Court, helping select the candidates for appointment to seven vacancies in the federal judiciary in the Western District of Washington. From 2005 to 2008, Ms. Durkan served as the lawyer representative to the 9th Circuit Judicial Conference, and moderated a seminar panel on military justice and the Guantanamo tribunals.

Durkan’s civic involvement also includes serving on the non-profit board of the Center for Women and Democracy from 2000 to 2009, as a founding Board Member for the Seattle Police Foundation from 2002 to 2004, and as the Chair of the Washington State Attorney General’s Task Force on Consumer Privacy which resulted in legislation that became a national model for identity theft protections.

Durkan graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1980 and received her law degree from the University of Washington in 1985. She is a member of the Washington State and District of Columbia bars as well as admitted to various federal courts including the United States Supreme Court.

Durkan is a Seattle attorney and grew up in Issaquah.