Kevin Ryan, Former US Attorney, California

President Bush nominated Kevin Ryan to be US Attorney for the Northern District of California in May 2002. He resigned in February 2007. He is replaced by Scott N. Schools, a Beltway appointee. (Schools is the General Counsel for the Justice Department's Executive Office for United States Attorneys.)

Ryan achieved national attention because of his focus on Silicon Valley stock-options transgressions, such as backdating. He filed his first backdating indictment in July 2005. He achieved DOJ attention because of a high turnover rate among attorneys. (How much of this turn-over might be related to fostering an environment conductive to minorities is unknown.)

The Boston Globe reports that "his efforts to pursue violent crime cases more often than traditional white-collar crimes did not gain approval from his superiors."

From the DOJ press release:

"Kevin was instrumental in bringing diversity to the U.S. Attorney's Office," said Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay, who served as Ryan's top deputy from 2002-2003. "The women and minorities he hired fundamentally changed the dynamic of the office for the better. One of the things I noticed in working with Kevin was that he was not afraid to make people accountable for their actions. Most importantly, Kevin brought courage to, and a fresh look at, complex problems that merited the government's attention. Kevin was not afraid to pursue complex cases and issues, like terrorism, Balco, stock options backdating, and corporate fraud."

Ryan's tenure has been noted for taking an aggressive stance in criminal street gang cases, and using powerful federal RICO statutes to take violent offenders off the street. The office has also been productive in aggressively prosecuting felons possessing firearms as part of the President's Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative. Outside of the courtroom, Ryan has been instrumental in securing over $3 million in federal funding to weed out the worst offenders, and to provide organizations with funding to create and sustain community development programs and initiatives.

Ryan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law. Ryan began his legal career in California as a prosecutor with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. The Northern District of California is home to the nation's first Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Unit (CHIP), which is the model for the country