Leigha Simonton, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, is resigning from the Department of Justice.
The DOJ announced Simonton's departure on Thursday, effective Jan. 19, 2025.
President Joe Biden nominated Simonton on Nov. 14, 2022, to replace Erin Nealy Cox, who resigned as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas in December 2020. Simonton was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 6, 2022, and was sworn in four days later.
“I began my career in this office as a summer intern after my first year of law school,” said Ms. Simonton. “It was love at first sight. Every day after that internship, I was figuring out how to become an Assistant U.S. Attorney here. I got that chance when I was nine months pregnant with my first child—a baby who is now 20 years old."
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Simonton is a North Texas native who graduated from Berkner High School in 1994 before graduating early with the highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2001. She clerked for two years before joining a private practice in 2003. After two years, she began her career with the DOJ as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
"I am so proud to have served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for almost 18 years and then to have been chosen to lead this district—comprised of 100 counties and over eight million people—as the United States Attorney," Simonton said. "I cannot put into words what this experience has meant to me, and I leave with two decades of incredible memories."
In their statement about her departure, the DOJ included a long list of accomplishments under Simonton's two-year tenure and hinted that after a short break, she might reenter private practice while continuing to advocate for domestic violence victims and protect children and young adults from fentanyl and other threats.
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"There is nothing more important than the work of our outstanding women and men in this office and in North Texas law enforcement, and I will be forever grateful to have been a part of it," Simonton said.
An acting U.S. Attorney will be announced at a later date.
