Legal News

A Look at Nora Dannehy, the Newest Addition to the U.S. Attorney Mess

By Dan Slater

Yesterday, AG Michael Mukasey named Nora R. Dannehy, acting U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to oversee the probe into “whether any prosecutable offense was committed with regard to the removal of a U.S. Attorney or the testimony of any witness related to the U.S. Attorney removals.” Today, Dionne Searcey, the newest addition to the WSJ’s legal gang, delivers us some background on the career prosecutor, who will have to turn around her investigation in a mere 60 days:

In this Oct. 25, 2005 file photo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy speaks to reporters outside U.S. District Court in New Haven, Conn. (AP Photo/Bob Child, File)

In her 17 years in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut, Nora Dannehy has sent a governor and a state treasurer to prison. Is she up for tackling such a lengthy and politically dicey investigation? Legal peers and former bosses say the long-distance runner is up to it.

“She’s stubborn as hell and very, very smart,” said William Gerace, who went up against Dannehy in the investigation of his client, Lawrence E. Alibozek, who as a deputy chief of staff for Gov. John G. Rowland was accused of taking payoffs. “She doesn’t play politics.”

Because of the litany of public corruption cases Dannehy, 47, has prosecuted, she has a reputation as a pitbull, say attorneys. But in actuality, they say, she’s merely meticulous, hard-working and dedicated to her job. To that end, lawyers involved in cases with her know she sometimes calls meetings on Sunday evenings. And given Mukasey’s request for a report in 60 days, Nora might well log some weekend work between now and Thanksgiving.

“Nora is a grind it out lawyer, she’ll just sit there and work… she’s a real pro,” said William Dow III, the attorney who represented former Gov. Rowland in his criminal case.

Dannehy’s father was a Connecticut Supreme Court Justice and her brother was appointed as a superior court judge. Her husband, Leonard Boyle, is Connecticut’s former commissioner of public safety and now is director of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, which manages a watch list of suspected terrorists.

From 1986 to 1988, Dannehy (Wellesley ‘83, Harvard law ‘86) served as a law clerk to Senior U.S. District Judge T. Emmet Clarie. Then Dannehy worked as an associate at Day Berry & Howard from 1988 to 1991, according to the firm, now called Day Pitney. “Not only was she extremely bright, capable and hard-working, but she had an unmatched work ethic, never being afraid to work tirelessly to get to the solution of a legal problem,” said David J. Elliott, who at one point was Dannehy’s boss.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).