It’s been a busy six months for the new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Jacqueline Romero.

After being nominated by President Joe Biden for the position on April 22, confirmed and sworn in by the U.S. Senate on June 13, Romero will now officially have her investiture ceremony on Friday, Oct. 14 at 1:30 p.m. in the Ceremonial Courtroom at the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse on 6th and Market Streets in Philadelphia.

While she’s been carrying out duties and acclimating herself with the job in the three months since her confirmation and swearing in by the Senate, the installation ceremony is symbolic of Romero officially hitting the pinnacle of her career at the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

She is the first woman of color to ever hold the position of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Her career at the office is 16 years and running. 

That experience in the office itself is why many, including herself, saw Biden’s promotion as a surprise because past U.S. Attorneys have come from outside the office.

But Romero’s experience speaks for itself.

She first joined at 27 years old as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and built her way up over the years to eventually become the office’s Civil Rights Coordinator, handling all cases and investigations into civil rights abuses in Philadelphia, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton counties.

A graduate of Rutgers Law School and the College of New Jersey, Romero first went to the private firm Lowenstein Sandler PC for two years before beginning at the DOJ. 

She is the daughter of Spanish immigrants who owned and operated a diner in Tenafly, New Jersey, where the roots of her career in criminal justice were laid reading the daily newspapers delivered to the business.

Outside of the government, Romero has also been an adjunct law professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and was once the President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania.

On the award front, Romero was named an AL DÍA Top Lawyer in 2020 in the government category. This year, Romero is the public service archetype for this year’s AL DÍA Hispanic Heritage Awards.