Jenny Durkan

Early life and education

Durkan grew up in Issaquah, Washington as the fourth of seven children and attended a private Catholic girls school.

She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1980. After graduating from Notre Dame, she moved to an Inuit fishing village on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska, where she taught English and coached a girls basketball team. In Alaska, she also worked as a baggage handler for Wien Air Alaska in St. Mary’s and was a dues paying Teamster.

Durkan earned her law degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 1985. "I wanted to be a lawyer since I was 5 years old," she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1992. "When I graduated from law school, my mother said, 'Finally someone is going to pay you to argue."'

Professional career

While in law school, Durkan participated in a pilot Criminal Defense clinic, working with the public defender’s office to represent individuals charged in Seattle municipal court. She continued the work on a pro bono basis, until she moved to Washington D.C. to practice law with the firm of Williams & Connolly. There she did a range of civil and criminal cases, including representing reporters subpoenaed by the government.

Durkan returned to Seattle in 1991, and established a successful practice focusing on criminal defense and work on behalf of plaintiffs, including the family of Lt. Walter Kilgore who died in the Pang warehouse fire, the case of Stan Stevenson (a retired firefighter who was stabbed leaving a Mariners game) and the case of Kate Fleming, who died from a flash flood in her own Madison Valley basement.

Among her most prominent cases in private practice was winning the 2005 recount lawsuit that attempted to undo Governor Chris Gregoire’s election as governor in 2004. The Democratic Party turned to Durkan with Gregoire’s election “facing an unprecedented trial and Republicans trying to remove her from office.”

She worked with families and other attorneys at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to prevent the return of individuals who had arrived lawfully at the airport the day President Donald Trump's first Travel Ban executive order went into effect.

After serving as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, she joined Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to head a new Seattle office, specializing in internet and online security issues.

Civic leader

She served on the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission from 1993 to 1996. She served as the first Citizen Observer on the Seattle Police Firearms Review Board from 1997–2000 and two Seattle mayors asked her to serve on Citizen Review Committees for the Seattle Police Department. She also played an advisory role on the establishment of the King County Drug Court and the Mental Health Court. She later helped create a specialized drug program in the federal courts in Western Washington.

In September 1994, Durkan left the Schroeter law firm to join the staff of then-Washington Gov. Mike Lowry as his lawyer and political adviser. In February of the following year, Durkan returned to the Schroeter law firm.

Durkan is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and maintains an AV rating from Martindale Hubbel. She served a three-year term on the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors. She served on the Merit Selection Committee for the United States District Court, helping select the candidates for appointment to seven vacancies in the federal judiciary in the Western District of Washington.

She served on the non-profit board of the Center for Women and Democracy from 2000–09, as a founding Board Member for the Seattle Police Foundation from 2002–04, and as the Chair of the Washington State Attorney General's Task Force on Consumer Privacy which resulted in legislation that became a national model for identity theft protections.

Work as a United States Attorney

In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Durkan to be the U.S Attorney for the Western District of Washington, which covers 19 counties and is home to 4.6 million people (78% of the state's population).

She was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on September 29, 2009 and was sworn in on October 1 by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik.

While U.S. Attorney, Durkan created a Civil Rights Department in the office. It coordinates a variety of civil rights cases and outreach, including a number of cases on behalf of returning veterans.^[18] She also has helped push police reform efforts in the Seattle Police Department after a Department of Justice investigation found a pattern and practice of excessive use of force.

Upon taking office, Durkan was appointed to serve on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, which advises the U.S. Attorney General on policy, management, and operational issues at the Department of Justice. She is chair of the Attorney General's Subcommittee on Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Enforcement. Durkan has played a leading role in prosecuting cybercrimes, including hacking, skimming and identity theft.

Durkan worked with the public schools to ensure internet safety tips for parents and kids were sent home with kids at the beginning of the school year.

Durkan has focused on terrorism and national security issues, including the prosecution of two men who plotted to blow up a military recruitment facility in Seattle.

As U.S. Attorney, Durkan has used the federal law against felons possessing firearms to crack down on career criminals in Western Washington. Cases referred for felons-with-guns charges increased 45 percent in the past three years compared with the previous three years.

Durkan has pushed "hot spot" initiatives in high-crime areas to address drug and gun sales. These intensive investigations and law enforcement operations resulted in dozens of arrests and weapons confiscations.

United States Attorney General speculation

In September 2014, when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Durkan was widely discussed as a potential candidate to be the next United States Attorney General. Holder commented, re Durkan's service as U.S. Attorney, that: “[o]ver the years, she has demonstrated remarkable skill in guiding complex litigation, fostering interagency coordination, and combating a wide range of criminal activities. Jenny has been an exceptional leader in the Justice Department’s fight against cyber-crime and our work to protect the civil rights of all Americans."

Personal life

Durkan is one of seven children. She is a daughter of Martin Durkan, a former member of the Washington State Senate who twice—in 1968 and 1972—was a candidate for Governor of Washington but lost both times in the Democratic primaries.^[30] Durkan’s mother, Lorraine Durkan, was the executive editor of the Ballard News.

Durkan is lesbian. She and her partner, Dana Garvey, live in Seattle and have two sons. She was the first openly gay U.S. Attorney.

Candidate Survivor gaffe

In July 2017, during a "Candidate Survivor" mayoral forum hosted by The Stranger and the Washington Bus, Durkan imitated the Saturday Night Live skit of Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer in costume and used the term "colored person" during the skit. She went on to say: “You want to talk about racial, social justice and racial discrimination? Try go shopping for a freaking doll of a colored person. It doesn’t work.” Durkan apologized as soon as she took the stage again saying that she tripped over her words and apologized for using the term.