Lynch's first legal job was as a litigation associate for Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York City. She joined the Eastern District as a drug and violent-crime prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in 1990. From 1994 to 1998, she served as the chief of the Long Island office and worked on several political corruption cases involving the government of Brookhaven, New York. From 1998 to 1999, she was the chief assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District and headed the Brooklyn office.
In 1999, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.[11] During her term as U.S. Attorney, Lynch oversaw prosecution of New York City police officers in the Abner Louima case.
In 2001, Lynch left the U.S. Attorney's office to become a partner at Hogan & Hartson (later Hogan Lovells). She remained there until January 20, 2010, when President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to again serve as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.[7][12] From 2003 to 2005, she was a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.[13]
Following the July 2014 death of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who died after being held in a department-prohibited chokehold by a New York City police officer, Lynch agreed to meet with Garner's family to discuss possible federal prosecution of the officer believed to be responsible for Garner's death.[14][15]
Lynch's office prosecuted Republican congressman Michael Grimm; prosecuted Democratic politicians Pedro Espada Jr. and William Boyland, Jr.; investigated Citigroup over mortgage securities sold by the bank, resulting in a US$7 billion settlement; and was involved in the US$1.2 billion settlement with HSBC over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.[2][16][17]
While Lynch was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, she supervised the investigation into senior FIFA officials from its earliest stages. The investigation culminated in the indictment of 14 senior FIFA officials and sports marketing executives shortly after Lynch was confirmed as Attorney General.[18] For her work in the case, which eventually led to the resignation of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Lynch was presented with the 3rd annual Golden Blazer by NBC Sports' Men in Blazers (Roger Bennett and Michael Davies).[19] (The other winners so far include ESPN's Bob Ley, NBC's Rebecca Lowe, FOX's Rob Stone and former US women's national team captains and FIFA Women's World Cup winners Julie Foudy and Megan Rapinoe.)
Replacing Lynch, Robert Capers was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York on December 15, 2015, taking his oath of office on January 4, 2016.