Eric T. Schneiderman. born December 31, 1954 is the 65th and current New York Attorney General.
A graduate of Amherst College with a B.A. in English and Asian studies, Schneiderman would go on to graduate with honors from Harvard Law School.
Schneiderman's career began when he served for two years as Deputy Sheriff in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. He also clerked for two years within the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, subsequent to which he became a partner at the law firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhart.As a public interest lawyer, Schneiderman served for over a decade as counsel to the West Side Crime Prevention program, and as lead counsel to the Straphangers Campaign's lawsuit against New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Attorney General
Schneiderman was the Democratic Party nominee for New York Attorney General, defeating four other candidates in the Democratic Primary on September 14, 2010. He won the general election against Republican nominee and Richmond County district attorney Dan Donovan and took office on January 1st, 2011.
In his first weeks in office, Attorney General Schneiderman launched a plan to root out fraud and return money illegally stolen from New York taxpayers at no additional cost to the state. This initiative includes a new "Taxpayer Protection Unit" specifically designed to go after corruption in state contracts, pension fund rip-offs, and large-scale tax cheats. Schneiderman has also bolstered the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit by cracking down on fraud in the Medicaid program.
In addition, Schneiderman has sued a Pennsylvania power plant emitting dangerous sulphur dioxide into New York, took on several tobacco companies for illegally selling cigarettes online amid a teen smoking epidemic, and shut down fake immigration services companies scheming to defraud victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Senate
Before being elected Attorney General, Schneiderman previously represented the 31st District in the New York State Senate. This comprises Manhattan's Upper West Side, as well as Morningside Heights, West Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill, in addition to part of Riverdale, The Bronx.
Leadership
Schneiderman is a former Chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. This post has served as a source of irritation to some of his colleagues within the Senate Republican leadership, prompting the redrawing of Senator Schneiderman's district in 2002 in order to include Washington Heights. This prompted former City Councilman Guillermo Linares - the first Dominican elected official within New York City - to run against him in the Democratic primary in an ultimately unsuccessful bid for office.
In October 2009, Schneiderman was selected to chair the special committee to investigate the conduct of former Senator Hiram Monserrate. The bipartisan committee unanimously recommended Monserrate's expulsion from the Senate.
Legislation
Schneiderman was the chief sponsor of the Rockefeller Drug Law reforms, which were passed and signed into law in 2009. His other legislative accomplishments include passing the most sweeping ethics reforms in a generation and the toughest law in the nation to root out fraud against taxpayers.
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