Jed Saul Rakoff

Jed Saul Rakoff is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He joined the court in 1996 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. Rakoff assumed senior status on December 31, 2010. He graduated from Swarthmore with his bachelor’s degree in 1964, and later from Oxford-England with his Master’s of Philosophy degree in 1966. Rakoff received a J.D. from Harvard Law in 1969. He was a law clerk for former Judge Abraham Freedman of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1969 to 1970. Rakoff entered private practice in New York City from 1970 to 1972 before serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York from 1973 to 1980. Rakoff worked as Chief Prosecutor of the Business and Securities Fraud Prosecutions Unit from 1978 to 1980 before resuming private practice work until 1995.