Joan Marie Azrack (born August 13, 1951) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She is a former United States magistrate judge of the same court.

Biography

Azrack was born in 1951, in Neptune Township, New Jersey. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1974 from Rutgers University. She received a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1979 from New York Law School. She began her career as a trial attorney in the

Criminal Division In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

of the United States Department of Justice from 1979 to 1981. From 1982 to 1990, she was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...

in the Eastern District of New York, where she served as Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Section from 1985 to 1986 and as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division and Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section from 1986 to 1990. From 1988 to 1991, Azrack was a visiting instructor at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Federal judicial service

From 1990 to 2014 she served as a United States magistrate judge in the Eastern District and as chief United States magistrate judge from 2000 to 2005. On September 18, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Azrack to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, to the seat vacated by Judge

Joanna Seybert Joanna Seybert (born September 18, 1946) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Education and career Seybert received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University o ...

, who assumed senior status on January 13, 2014. She received a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on November 13, 2014. On December 11, 2014, her nomination was reported out of committee by voice vote. On Saturday, December 13, 2014 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination. On December 16, 2014, Reid withdrew his cloture motion on Azrack's nomination, and the Senate proceeded to vote to confirm Azrack in a voice vote. She received her federal judicial commission on December 19, 2014.

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Azrack, Joan 1951 births Living people 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges Assistant United States Attorneys Harvard Law School faculty Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York New York Law School alumni New York (state) lawyers People from Neptune Township, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama United States magistrate judges