A Conversation w
ith
The Honorable Jed S. Rakoff,
United States District Judge, United States District Court
for the Southern District of New York
Judge Rakoff was appointed to the Southern District bench
in 1996. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College (1964),
Oxford University (M. Phil. 1966) and Harvard Law School
(1969). Following law school, he was a law clerk to Judge
Abraham Freedman (3d Cir.). After two years as a litigation
associate at Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates (New York
City), he became an Assistant United States Attorney in the
Southern District, serving from 1973-80 and becoming Chief of the
Business and Securities Fraud Unit. From 1980-90, he was a
partner at Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferndon.
From 1990-96, he was a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver
& Jacobson. In each firm, he headed the criminal defense
and civil RICO sections and was active in securities and banking
litigation.
Since 1988, he has been a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School,
where he teaches seminars on White Collar Crime and on the
Interplay of Civil and Criminal Law.