Schumer recommends Hochul to new post

ALBANY, N.Y. (WIVB) - Tuesday, New York Senator Charles Schumer recommended William Hochul to be the next US Attorney for the Western District of New York.

Schumer already made his recommendation to President Barack Obama.  Hochul is currently an assistant US Attorney and has prosecuted high profile cases including Local Laborers 91 and the Lackawanna Six.

He's also the husband of Erie County Clerk, Kathy Hochul.

Hochul's full biography is below.

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William J. Hochul, Jr., is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of New York, and Chief of the Office’s National Security Division. In his supervisory position, Mr. Hochul is responsible for the oversight of all terrorism, organized crime, and human trafficking cases prosecuted in the Office.

Mr. Hochul graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1981, and earned his law degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School in 1984. Among his law school accomplishments, Mr. Hochul in 1982 won the Best Oralist award at the National Constitutional Law Moot Court competition held in North Carolina.

Mr. Hochul began his legal career in the Washington, D.C. area as a law clerk to a Maryland Court of Appeals Judge. At the conclusion of this appointment, Mr. Hochul joined the litigation section at the Washington Office of a five hundred member international law firm, where he represented a wide variety of clients in complex civil litigation matters, including racketeering and fraud-related lawsuits.

Mr. Hochul joined the Department of Justice in 1987 as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. While in Washington, Mr. Hochul prosecuted an extensive array of violent and white collar criminal cases, and later specialized in the prosecution of first-degree and gang-related murder cases.

Mr. Hochul joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York in 1991. In this capacity, Mr. Hochul prosecuted a large number of cases notorious violent and white collar criminals, racketeering and other complex schemes, and multiple cases targeting violent street gangs and emerging international organized crime groups. Most recently, Mr. Hochul serves as lead prosecutor in several high-profile international terrorism cases, including the highly successful prosecution of the internationally known “Lackawanna Six.”

Mr. Hochul frequently speaks, domestically and abroad, to law enforcement groups, attorneys, and judges on matters relating to investigating and prosecuting organized crime, gang, terrorism, and money laundering offenses. He served previously as an adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law, where he taught classes on trial techniques, at Niagara University, where he taught courses on terrorism, and is presently on the faculty of Hilbert College, where he teaches a terrorism/homeland security course.

Mr. Hochul has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including co-recipient of the 2003 Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service - the highest award of the United States Department of Justice. Over the past year, Mr. Hochul received the 2008 Citizen of the Year - Law Category Award; the 2008 Distinguished Leadership Award; and a Special Achievement Award presented by United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. He also previously received a Service to America Award (2003), Investigator of the Year Award (2006), and was recognized by McGraw-Hill’s Engineer News-Record magazine as a Top 25 Newsmaker for having purged Niagara County, New York of decades of construction industry violence and intimidation.

Mr. Hochul is married to Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul. He is the father of William III and Katie. William is completing his junior year at the State University of New York at Geneseo and Katie is completing her sophomore year at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In his spare time, Mr. Hochul is a martial arts instructor and a baseball coach.