Jacqueline Romero | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania | |
| In office June 21, 2022 –February 17, 2025 | |
| President | Joe Biden Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Bill McSwain |
| Succeeded by | Nelson Thayer (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1970or1971(age 54–55) [1] |
| Education | College of New Jersey (BA) Rutgers University (JD) |
Jacqueline C. Romero (born 1970/1971) is an American lawyer who served as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 2022 to 2025.
Romero grew up in Tenafly,NJ and is the granddaughter of Spanish immigrants. [2] [1] Her grandfather,Diego Romero,was born in La Coruna,Spain and initially worked as a stonemason. [3] Her grandmother cleaned houses. [4]
The youngest of five children, [5] Romero worked in the family’s diner,Romero’s Restaurant,where her father was the short-order cook. [6] She was an active reader from an early age and at five years old declared to her parents that someday she would be a judge. [6]
Romero attended Tenafly High School,graduating in 1989. [7]
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey) in 1993 with highest honors. [8]
During college Romero participated in the College Honors Program. [8] As an undergraduate,she was honored by the New Jersey Project in 1991 for outstanding achievement in feminist scholarship for a research paper. [9] Her work has been published in Smart Money magazine. [9]
While in college,Romero was an intern for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington D.C. and later worked for Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Washington) organizing the 1992 International Congressional Forum on HIV/AIDS. [10]
Romero attended Rutgers Law School Newark as part of the Rutgers’Minority Student Program. She graduated in 1996 [6] and has credited her at experience at Rutgers with helping her secure her first position as an attorney [11] in 1996 [12] [13] While in law school,Romero was co-founder of the Rutgers Race and the Law Review and Research Editor for the Computer &Technology Law Journal. [11]
Following law school,Romero was hired as an associate at Lowenstein Sandler where she worked from 1996 to 1998.
In 1998,Romero joined the U.S. Deparment of Justice as a trial attorney. From 2000 to 2006,she was senior counsel for the United States Mint before being promoted to assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where she remained until 2021. [14] [15] [16]
On April 22,2022,President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Romero to serve as the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. [17] On April 25,2022,her nomination was sent to the Senate. [18] On June 9,2022,her nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee;Senators Ted Cruz,Josh Hawley and Marsha Blackburn were recorded as voting "Nay". [19]
On June 13,2022,her nomination was unanimously confirmed in the United States Senate. She was sworn into office on June 21,2022. [20]
Romero announced on February 17,2025 that should would depart the office. Her announcement came after President Donald Trump ordered the dismissal of all U.S. attorneys appointed by Biden. [21] [22]
In July of 2025,Romero joined BakerHostetler as a partner in the firm's litigation practice and a member of the White Collar,Investigations,and Securities Enforcement and Litigation team based in Philadelphia. [23]
United States of America ex rel. Wyatt et al. v. BioTek reMEDys,Inc.
In 2023 as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,Romero settled a case claiming that BioTek reMEDys paid illegal kickbacks to patients and physicians in violation of the False Claims Act.i [24] Under an agreement with the government,BioTek agreed to pay $20 million [25] for giving doctors free meals,tickets and gifts in order to convince patients to return to BioTek for future medical needs. [26] Prosecutors claimed that BioTek regularly waived co-payments without financial assessments for patients with Medicare and TRICARE,the Defense Department’s health plan. [27]
United States et al. ex rel. Jean Brasher v. Pentec Health,Inc.
In 2013 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,Romero led a team which brought a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit against Pentec Health. The complaint alleged that the company illegally waived Medicare patients' copay obligations and billed government healthcare programs for substantial amounts of wasted drug ingredients. [28] The charges were settled in 2019 for $17 million. [29]
Roy Langbord,et al.,Plaintiffs,V. United States Department Of The Treasury,et al.,Defendants [30]
In 2006,while working as senior counsel to the U.S. Mint,Romero defended a case brought by a family that was in possession of a set of 10 rare “Double Eagle”coins minted in 1933 but never circulated. [31] The family had claimed that after submitting the coins to the U.S. Mint for authentication,the Mint refused to return them stating that the coins had been obtained illegally and were property of the U.S. government. After more than five years of litigation, [32] Romero and her team successfully demonstrated that the coins were property of the U.S. Government [32] and had been stolen from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in the 1930s [33] as part of an inside job. [34] The case was decided by a jury in 2011 and the coins,valued at more than $40 million,were returned to the U.S. Mint’s bullion depository in Fort Knox,Kentucky. [35] The family were unsuccessful in their appeal. [36]
United States et al.,ex rel. Jeremy Garrity v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
Beginning in 2005,Romero was part of a team of government prosecutors pursuing an extensive qui tam action against Novartis Pharmaceuticals under Federal and State False Claims Acts. [37] The U.S. Department of Justice claimed that Novartis paid kickbacks to more than 4,000 health care providers to encourage them to prescribe the drugs Trileptal,Diovan,Exforge,Tekturna,Zelnorm,and Sandostatin. [38] The matter settled in 2010 with Novartis paying $170 million in criminal fine and $15 million in criminal forfeiture for Trileptal. The claims concerning the additional drugs totaled an additional $237.5 million in fines. [39]
Romero was the first in her family to attend college [49] and the first member of the LGBTQ+ community to hold the position of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. [50]
Romero served as a president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania [15] and has been a member of the Philadelphia LGBTQ Bar Association. [15]
She was an adjunct law professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and served as the president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania. [51]
In 2025 Romero was appointed to the board of trustees of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation. [52]
In 2020,Romero was appointed to a Special Committee on Law Enforcement Reform and Racial Justice by the Hispanic National Bar Association. [53]
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