Ag Names New Head Of Criminal Prosecutions Bureau

Attorney General Spitzer today announced the appointment of Janet S. Cohn as Bureau Chief for Criminal Prosecutions in the Department of Law. Cohn is a former Deputy Chief of the Rackets Bureau in the New York County District Attorney’s Office, with broad experience in investigating and prosecuting organized crime, political corruption and antitrust violations.

"In addition to being a first-rate prosecutor, Janet brings critical expertise in managing and administering a legal staff," Spitzer said. "Together with Deputy Attorney General for the Criminal Division Debra L. W. Cohn, Janet will instill a new energy and dynamism to the department’s criminal prosecutions."

Until recently, Cohn served as Deputy Chief of the Rackets Bureau in the New York County District Attorney’s Office, where she conducted that office’s first trial under the Organized Crime Control Act. Prior to joining the DA’s office in 1988, Cohn was a litigation associate at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler in New York City. Before that, she was law clerk to U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel in Massachusetts.

Cohn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and from Yale Law School in 1985.

The Criminal Prosecutions Bureau, with 46 attorneys and support staff, is responsible for prosecuting financial crimes, environmental crimes and a wide range of other criminal prosecutions.