Rachael A. Honig
Newly appointed Acting United States Attorney Rachael A. Honig takes over in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, following the resignation of former U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, which was effective on January 5, 2021. Three weeks prior, on December 14, 2020, former U.S. Attorney Carpenito made the announcement of his stepping down. The appointment of Rachael A. Honig as the Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey is pursuant to the Vacancies Reform Act and shall expire after 300 days following January 6, 2021, or until such time that a Presidential appointment is made and confirmed by the Senate, whichever shall occur first.
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Education
A graduate of The University of Chicago, U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Language & Literature, graduating with General and Department Honors in 1995. She subsequently graduated from The University of Chicago Law School in 1999, earning her Juris Doctorate and graduating with High Honors. At the time, she also served as a Member and a Comment Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Legal Career
Succeeding her acquisition of a law degree, U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1999 to 2000, consequently initiating her law career. In October of 2000, U.S. Attorney Honig began private practice and joined the Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr as a Litigation Associate, serving in the firm for three years. She provided legal representation across a comprehensive range of practice areas in the firm. Later on, she began her more than a decade of good service in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. Initially an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division from 2003 to 2006, U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig eventually branched out and joined the Special Prosecutions Division as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 2006 to 2010. After about seven and a half years of service in the Office, U.S. Attorney Honig was promoted into being the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, where she assisted in managing the different sections of the division, including the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering, Cybercrime Prevention and Enforcement, Economic Crimes, Government Funds, Health Care Fraud, Narcotics/Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), National Security, and the Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement sections of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. She remained in the position for about three years, from April of 2020 to March of 2013.
Prior to joining private practice once again, U.S. Attorney Honig became the Counsel to the U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fisherman for almost four years, from March of 2013 to November of 2016, providing essential legal advice to the U.S. Attorney on a variety of community engagement, operational, policy, and public affairs issues relating to the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. In 2016, U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig became a Corporate Counsel in Litigation and Compliance Investigations for the Celgene Corporation, wherein she offered advice on legal matters, as well as conducted legal research to improve the service and benefits to the employees and to the parent corporation itself.
In March of 2018, U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey as a First Assistant U.S. Attorney to former U.S. Attorney Carpenito. In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the Criminal, Civil, and Administrative Divisions of the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Named in the Top Women in Law on November 20, 2020, U.S. Attorney Honig is distinguished as the first female First Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey in over 30 years, with claims of being only the second ever in the history of the United States.
Office Jurisdiction
Currently, the Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer of the District of New Jersey, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig, oversees all the federal criminal prosecutions in the Office, as well as all the litigations of civil matters within the District of New Jersey that involves and serves the interest of the federal government. In addition, she is now responsible for managing the Offices of the U.S. Attorney in Camden, Newark, and Trenton and supervising the Office staff comprised of approximately 170 federal prosecutors and about 130 support personnel.
Contact Details
Newark Main Office
U.S. Attorney’s Office
970 Broad Street, 7th Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 645-2700
Main
(973) 645-2702
Fax
(973) 645-6227
TDD
(973) 645-2700
LECC
(973) 645-2893
VICTIM-WITNESS UNIT
(973) 645-2546
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Camden Branch Office
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Camden Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse
P.O. Box 2098
401 Market Street, 4th Floor
Camden, NJ 08101
(856) 757-5026
Main
(856) 968-4917
Main Fax
(856) 757-5416
Civil Division Fax
(856)968-4983
TDD
(856) 757-5026
LECC
Trenton Branch Office
U.S. Attorney’s Office
402 East State Street, Room 430
Trenton, NJ 08608
(609) 989-2190
Main
(609) 989-2275
Fax
Public Affairs Office
(973) 645-288
Main
[email protected]
Email
Social Media Profiles of Rachael Honig
Username: Rachael (Hill) Honig
URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-honig-1b85b113b/
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Twitter Field
Username: NJ US Attorney
Tag: @USAO_NJ
URL: https://twitter.com/USAO_NJ
Updated: January 22, 2021
Philip R. Sellinger is the next State’s Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
Updated: May 4, 2023