Lee H. Vilker ’90 was recently named as one of two senior prosecutors to head the United States Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division, as announced in a United States Department of Justice press release.
To lead the United States Attorney’s Criminal Division Vilker will be responsible, as described by the Department of Justice, for developing, enforcing and supervising the application of all federal criminal laws except those that the Department of Justice has assigned specifically to other departments. The Criminal Division and its 93 U.S. Attorneys, of which Vilker is now one, have the responsibility for overseeing criminal matters as well as certain civil litigation, as described by the Department of Justice’s website on the functions of the position.
After graduating from Brandeis in 1990, Vilker attended law school at New York University (NYU) School of Law where he graduated in 1993 and received the annual American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law, as described in Vilker’s biography on the U.S. Department website.
According to the University of Oklahoma College of Law, the American Jurisprudence Award is an award given to law school students who demonstrate outstanding scholastic achievement by holding the highest class rank and grade in a specific type of law. Vilker, during his time in law school, specialized in constitutional law which concerns itself with the interpretation and application of the United States Constitution as it relates to fundamental questions of sovereignty and democracy, as defined by the Legal Information Institute.
After graduating from law school, Vilker worked as a litigation associate in New York City in the law firm of Proskauer Rose, LLP from 1995-1999, according to his biography on the Department of Justice’s website. For one year during his time at Proskauer Rose, LLP, 1995-1996, Vilker worked for the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court as a law clerk, also according to the Department of Justice. However, in May of 1999 Vilker left his New York Law Firm of Proskauer Rose, LLP to work as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of New Jersey. After three years, Vilker continued his work in the Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney but transferred from the District of New Jersey to the District of Rhode Island where he has remained since, as written in his Justice Department biography.
With 18 years of experience of work in the District of Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, Vilker was promoted to the office of Deputy Criminal Chief in December 2020. Then, after only two years, in August 2022 Vilker was promoted to the office of Acting Criminal Chief as described by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Vilker’s time in the Department of Justice has seen him take legal action on a number of different cases over the course of 20 years. Notably, Vilker’s background in constitutional law has led him to specialize in investigating and prosecuting multifaceted fraud cases with the Justice Department. As described by the Department of Justice, Vilker has had a direct hand in working with the Justice Department to investigate Ponzi schemes, investment fraud and corporate embezzlement. But, Vilker has not been limited to his specialization while working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office; he has also successfully prosecuted other types of legal matters such as complex narcotics offenses and crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Vilker’s career in the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice has been filled with a wide variety of cases and opportunities.
