Benito Romano (born 1950) was the first Puerto Rican to hold a United States Attorney's post in New York on an interim basis.

Early life and education

Romano's parents moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

and settled down in the Bronx where he was born and raised. His grandfather, a dairy farmer, immigrated from Palermo, Italy to Puerto Rico and married a local Puerto Rican woman. His family was poor, Romano grew up on Simpson Street in the South Bronx and his father worked in a factory that made cigarette holders.New York Times, "Interim U.S. Attorney: 'Street Smart' and Fair"
By DENNIS HEVESI; Published: January 11, 1989 Romano went to Morris High School where he played in the school's baseball and was good enough to be an All-City second baseman. After graduating from Morris High School Romano went to and graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in 1972. In 1976, he graduated from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

earning his Juris Doctor degree, and becoming the first member of his family to go to college. In 1977, he was admitted to the New York Bar.

Career

United States attorney

During his seven years in the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District, he was chief of the corruption unit under United States Attorney

Rudolph W. Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1 ...

at the height of the municipal scandals. Romano as chief of the public corruption unit, played a crucial role in the negotiations during which Geoffrey A. Lindenauer, an official in the city's Parking Violations Bureau, was persuaded to testify for the Government. Romano later was named associate United States attorney, the third-ranking position. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, hired Romano as director of the New York State Commission on Government Integrity and later recruited Romano to his law firm. On February 1, 1989, Romano was named the interim replacement for Giuliani as the Federal prosecutor in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Romano has endorsed the major insider-trading cases and the emphasis on drug, organized-crime and government-corruption prosecutions that began in Giuliani's term. When the New York Times headline ''An Italian Name'' was published describing the crime-fighting achievement of Romano, he was quick to clarify that he identifies himself as a Puerto Rican and not as an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. On September 7, 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Otto G. Obermaier, a defense lawyer, as the permanent successor to Giuliani and on September 22, 1989, Obermaier was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

as Giuliani's successor.

Private practice

Subsequent to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Romano was a partner for 20 years at the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and the leader of their white collar defense practice. He is currently a partner in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's litigation practice group in New York City, and focuses his practice on white collar defense including SEC, FINRA, regulatory enforcement proceedings, and related complex civil litigation. On April 17, 2006, Romano, who is married and the father of five children, was appointed by

New York City Police The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly to serve on the newly created, four-member legal advisory committee to the New York City Police Department.Benito Romano Appointed to Special NYPD Legal Advisory Committee
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References

External links