In a major announcement on Friday, April 22, President Joe Biden announced a pair of nominations for U.S. Attorney in Pennsylvania. 

One is Jacqueline C. Romero, who Biden is nominating to be the new U.S. Attorney overseeing the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 

If confirmed by the Senate, Romero would be the first woman of color to ever hold the post. She is also the first woman ever nominated by the White House for the position, as current interim U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams assumed the role after the resignation of Bill McSwain.

Romero has worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since 2006, where she’s worked on a plethora of cases that have spanned affirmative and defense civil litigation, criminal prosecutions and appeals.

A New Jersey native and granddaughter of Spanish immigrants, she was raised working at her parents’ diner, where she both rubbed shoulders with local politicians that were customers and read the many newspapers that would be dropped off daily.

It was with the latter where Romero developed her interest in politics and current events.

She would go on to the College of New Jersey, majoring in political science before going on and graduating from Rutgers Law School. Her first gig in law before working for the government was with the firm Lowenstein Sandler as a litigation associate.

Now, if confirmed to lead the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Romero would lead a 140-person office that oversees prosecutions and civil matters in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Lehigh, Northampton, Berks and Lancaster counties.

AL DÍA has recognized Romero’s trailblazing career on numerous occasions. The first, was a profile of her when she became president of the Pennsylvania Hispanic Bar Association in 2017.

The second time was in 2020, as Romero was named an AL DÍA Top Lawyer in the government category.

When contacted for a reaction to Biden’s decision, Romero wrote in an email that she was “honored to be nominated.”

“I look forward to the confirmation process,” she continued.