Currently serving on her second tenure as Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, Sandra J. Hairston has been appointed as interim Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina. Such appointment was made under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, succeeding the resignation of U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin, effective February 28, 2021. Outgoing U.S. Attorney Martin announced his resignation on February 22, 2021, in response to the call of President Joe Biden for the remaining 55 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to vacate their positions, in line with his transition into incumbency. The announcement of the presidential request was made by Acting U.S. Attorney General Monty Wilkinson on February 9, 2021. Sandra Hairston assumes office on March 1, 2021. She shall continue serving in the position until a successor has been appointed by the Biden Administration.
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Appointment
First Assistant United States Attorney Sandra J. Hairston has been appointed as the new Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. She has been tapped to take over in the Office, following the stepping down of the outgoing U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin, whose resignation was announced February 22, 2021. She is effective on February 28, 2021. United States Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin is one of the remaining 55 U.S. Attorneys who has previously been appointed by former President Donald Trump and is now being requested by President-elect Joe Biden to vacate their post as he transitions into incumbency. Acting United States Attorney General Robert M. “Monty” Wilkinson made the announcement on behalf of the Biden Administration on February 9, 2021, asking for the remaining presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to tender their resignations on or before February 28, 2021. First Assistant United States Attorney Sandra Hairston will officially be named Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina on March 1, 2021, by virtue of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, and shall remain in the position for the subsequent 300 days, or up until a new U.S. Attorney has been appointed and confirmed by President Joe Biden and the Senate, respectively.
Educational Background
Acting U.S. Attorney Hairston is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, graduating with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in English in 1981. Succeeding her undergraduate studies, U.S. Attorney Hairston took up law at the North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina, earning her Juris Doctorate in 1987.
Legal Career
Launching her legal career in 1987, Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston joined the Thirteenth Prosecutorial District of North Carolina as an Assistant District Attorney. For three years, she was responsible for supervising the office as an Assistant District Attorney. On top of that, U.S. Attorney Hairston worked on criminal cases and determined if there were enough evidence against the criminal defendant to justify opening a case against the said offender. This line of work required her to interview victims and witnesses in criminal cases and then evaluating the evidence surrounding the crime. After three years, in 1990, Acting U.S. Attorney Hairston joined the Office of the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina as an Assistant United States Attorney.
In between her service in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina, Top Federal Prosecutor Hairston served a short stint at the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina as the Chief of the Criminal Division for about two years, from April of 1994 to June of 1996. She then returned to serve in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina in late June of 1996. She dedicated the next 25 years of her legal career to serving the Middle District of North Carolina residents. Within her more than three decades of performing duties as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston has held several leadership positions and represented the Office in a number of functions. She has previously been appointed as the Criminal Discovery Coordinator for the Middle District of North Carolina, where she was made responsible for researching, developing, vetting, and implementing a district-wide, comprehensive discovery litigation program that includes pertinent policy guidance, procedures, and protocols for the government’s discovery obligations and data management. Sandra Hairston has also formerly been assigned as the Professional Responsibility Officer of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) – accountable for investigating attorneys who are being linked or accused of misconduct or crimes within their professional functions under the DOJ. U.S. Attorney Hairston has also once served as the Ethical Advisor for the Middle District of North Carolina. Indeed, her exemplary sense of moral obligations is well recognized and is very much respected.
With her commendable leadership skills and practical knowledge in criminal prosecution, Acting U.S. Attorney Hairston has been made in charge of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Section in the Middle District of North Carolina, spearheading the task force as its Lead Attorney. In addition, she has formerly served as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, and then as its First Assistant United States Attorney in April of 2014. Apart from serving as second-in-command in the Office beginning in 2014 under the former U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand, Sandra Hairston was also named interim Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official for the Middle District of North Carolina from January 14, 2017, to January 3, 2018. She began serving in the capacity upon the resignation of former U.S. Attorney Rand. Until the appointment of former U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin, she was reinstated as the First Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Honors and Awards
The over three decades of valuable work and dedicated public service brought by Acting United States Attorney Sandra Hairston to the Middle District of North Carolina has not been left unnoticed. In 2002, U.S. Attorney Hairston had received the Director’s Award from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. In 2015, she was made a recipient of the Peter S. Gilchrist III, presented by the Criminal Justice Section of the North Carolina Bar Association in acknowledgment of her as a prosecutor who has been recognized for exemplifying the highest ideals of the profession.
Office Jurisdiction
Now on her second term as Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, Sandra J. Hairston is, once again, in charge of leading the Office of the United States Attorney in representing the United States of America, preventing criminal acts, and seeking justice in every case, for every victim and defendant. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina has jurisdiction over 24 counties in the central part of the State of North Carolina, comprising approximately three million people. Moreover, the Office of the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina is in charge of prosecuting federal crimes occurring within the district, including criminal cases of child exploitation, drug trafficking, financial fraud, healthcare fraud, human trafficking, illegal firearms, narcotics, public corruption, terrorism, among cases of violent crime.
Contact Details
Full Name: Sandra J. Hairston
District/State: Middle District of North Carolina
Public email ID: sandra.hairson@usdoj.gov
Greensboro Headquarters Office
101 South Edgeworth Street, 4th Floor
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 333-5351
Main
Winston-Salem Branch Office
251 North Main Street
Suite 726
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(336) 631-5268
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Updated: May 4, 2021