Carol Lam
Encyclopedia
Carol Chien-Hua Lam (born June 26, 1959) is a former United States Attorney
for the Southern District of California
. Lam was sworn into office on an interim basis on September 4, 2002. On November 12, 2002, Lam was further sworn in as a Senate confirmed Presidential appointee. She oversaw the Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham military contracting corruption case. Lam was one of eight attorneys fired in the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
.
of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
from 1985 to 1986.
From 1986 to 1997, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California and was Chief of the Major Frauds Section from 1997 to 2000. Lam convicted several high-ranking members of the Chicago organized crime family La Cosa Nostra; obtained a guilty plea and a civil settlement of $110 million from National Health Laboratories, Inc. in a Medicare fraud case; and briefed and argued the first appellate case upholding the constitutionality of "roving" wiretaps.
She then served as a judge of the Superior Court in San Diego, presiding over a criminal trial calendar.
In 2002, Lam was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California by George W. Bush. In 2007, Lam was asked to resign by the Bush Administration. Subsequent to the dismissal, the Administration claimed that Lam did not allocate sufficient resources to prosecuting border crimes, echoing US Representative Darrell Issa
's (R-CA) complaints.
On February 26, 2007, Lam joined Qualcomm
as Senior Vice President and Legal Counsel for the Company’s Legal Team. On August 13, 2007, Lam took the role of acting general counsel at Qualcomm while "a nationwide executive search" was begun for a permanent replacement for Lou Lupin, who resigned as general counsel just after the finding by Hon. Rudi M. Brewster, United States Senior District Court Judge, that Qualcomm and its counsel engaged in egregious legal misconduct. While the inception of Qualcomm and its counsel's misconduct predated the hiring of Ms. Lam, there has been no public statement as to whether her hiring was predicated on the emergence of the scandal.
In November 2008, Carol was named as Deputy General Counsel for Qualcomm.
Tenet settled. Denying that it paid kickbacks to doctors for referrals of patients to Alvarado, Tenet paid $21 million to the government, agreed to shut down Alvarado Hospital and admitted that the case has led to "significant reforms" at hospitals around the country and that the company had been "distressed" to learn of "excessive payments" to some doctors.
official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and contractor Brent R. Wilkes. Wilkes figured in the Cunningham scandal
.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, has reported that Lam was actively investigating Republican
Congressman
Jerry Lewis
at the time of her dismissal. The Los Angeles Times
, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel
and Senator Chuck Schumer, and others, asserted that Carol Lam was investigating Jerry Lewis
, suggesting that her firing by the Bush administration was politically motivated. However, the Washington Post and other news organizations reported that the investigation into Lewis was being run out by the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles in coordination with the Los Angeles FBI field office.
In January 2006, Lam announced the indictment of San Diego Gas & Electric
on five counts of environmental crimes regarding mishandled asbestos removal during the decommissioning of the Encanto Gas Holder site in Lemon Grove, California. A conviction as to some counts was reached by a jury after trial.
In December 2006, an attorney on Lam's staff, Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Alexander, convicted the Golden State Fence Company of Riverside, CA, and two of its executives, of hiring illegal immigrants. The Golden State Fence Company (a.k.a. Fenceworks, Inc.), was one of the contractors hired by the U.S. government to build the southern U.S. border fence. Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of Golden State Fence Co., and manager Michael McLaughlin were sentenced to serve three years of probation and perform 1040 hours of community service. Kay was fined $200,000 for his involvement in the crime and McLaughlin was fined $100,000. Golden State was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million dollars of illegal profits generated from hiring the illegal workers.
October 2004 - Leonard Senerote, Michael Uhl and Michael Snipes dismissed on No TX USA office.
February 2005 - Lam's name first appears on a firings list.
March 2005 - Leonard Leo e-mail.
October 2005 - 18 Republican lawmakers criticize Lam's handling of immigration cases (letter signed by Cunningham while under investigation).
March 2006 - Bush signs the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act.
April 2006 - Second mistrial in Lam's illegal-kickback trial of Alvarado execs.
May 5, 2006 - CIA director Porter Goss resigns unexpectedly.
May 10, 2006 - Lam notifies DoJ she planned to serve search warrants on Kyle Foggo, who resigned two days earlier as No. 3 official at the CIA.
May 10, 2006 - HHS announces forthcoming termination of Medicare payments to Alvarado/Tenet.
May 11, 2006 - Kyle Sampson e-mails deputy White House counsel William Kelley, re "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam ....
May 11, 2006 - LA Times reports Cunningham probe expanded to House Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA).
May 12, 2006 - FBI agents seizes records from Foggo's CIA offices and his suburban Vienna, Va.
May 17, 2006 - Tenet Healthcare Agrees to Divest Alvarado Hospital. Tenet will not lose Medicare money, civil settlement with the federal government.
May 18, 2006 - Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) provides false information to AP that Lam has prosecuted only 6% of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers.
July 31, 2006 - The Times
quotes Prakash Sethi "GPOs extract extra profits of $5 billion to $6 billion" illegitimately.
December 7, 2006 - Michael Battle, director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, calls seven U.S. Attorneys to ask for their resignations.
December 13, 2006 - AAG McNulty curbs USA's prosecutorial powers, centralizes corporate fraud charging decision making.
February 15, 2007 - Carol Lam resigns as U.S. Attorney for San Diego just days after filing indictments in public corruption case.
, director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys, called Lam and notified her that she must resign no later than January 31, 2007. Battle instructed Lam to explain that she had decided to pursue other opportunities. Following that phone call, Lam called Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
to find out why she was being asked to resign. McNulty said he wanted to take some time to respond since he didn't want to give an answer "that would lead" Lam down the wrong path. McNulty added that he knew Lam had been through a long trial (presumably the Alvarado Hospital case) and had great respect for her.
In a follow-up call with Battle, Lam requested additional time to ensure an orderly transition from office. On January 5, 2007, Battle said her request was "not being received positively" and that Lam "should stop thinking in terms of the cases in the office". Battle insisted that Lam had to depart in weeks, not months, and these orders were "coming from the very highest levels of government". Lam submitted her resignation January 16, 2007, effective February 15.
Many prominent Democrats, including Senators Charles Schumer
and Diane Feinstein, allege that Lam's firing was part of a broader, vengeful move against prosecutors that have pursued political corruption cases that damaged the careers of Republican politicians, or that were not loyal enough to either the Republican Party or the Administration. Republican
Congressman
Darrell Issa
has stated that he takes "maybe one-twentieth" of the responsibility for Lam's firing.
Statistics compiled by Lam's office corroborate the assertion that total prosecutions in border crossing cases have declined over Lam's tenure.
However, the Justice Department itself defended Lam in an August 23, 2006, letter to Senator Feinstein. They asserted:
In her own defense, Lam echoed the Justice Department's August letter, emphasizing quality prosecutions over sheer quantity. "When you take on more difficult investigations, the number of prosecutions might not be as high, but you have a larger impact on crime in the community." During her tenure as U.S. Attorney, Lam received both the Director's Award for Superior Performance and the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service.
United States Senator Orrin Hatch
of Utah, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, stated on his April 1, 2007, appearance on NBC's Meet the Press
broadcast:
Senator Hatch's description of Lam, however, was inaccurate; Lam was never a campaign manager for any candidate, nor a law professor, and she is an experienced prosecutor.
After a week of controversy, Hatch wrote a letter to Tim Russert
claiming that he "mispoke" in naming Lam several times, intending instead to name Alan Bersin
, Lam's predecessor; however, Bersin likewise had never been a law professor and was an experienced trial lawyer.
.
She was named Attorney of the Year by the San Diego County Bar Association in February 2007. Los Angeles Daily Journal named to the list of "Top 75 Women Litigators".
Lam has been frequently mentioned as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States
by observers of Barack Obama
's administration.
. She married Mark Steven Burnett, a geophysicist specializing in oceanography, on August 23, 1986.
from Yale University
with a degree in philosophy
. She received her J.D.
from Stanford Law School
in 1985.
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the Southern District of California
United States District Court for the Southern District of California
The United States District Court for the Southern District of California is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties in California: Imperial and San Diego. In terms of filed indictments, it is one of the busiest criminal districts in the United States...
. Lam was sworn into office on an interim basis on September 4, 2002. On November 12, 2002, Lam was further sworn in as a Senate confirmed Presidential appointee. She oversaw the Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham military contracting corruption case. Lam was one of eight attorneys fired in the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
The dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy was initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White...
.
Career
Lam began her legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Irving R. KaufmanIrving Kaufman
Irving Robert Kaufman was a federal judge in the United States. He is best remembered for imposing the controversial death sentences on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.-Biography:...
of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...
from 1985 to 1986.
From 1986 to 1997, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of California and was Chief of the Major Frauds Section from 1997 to 2000. Lam convicted several high-ranking members of the Chicago organized crime family La Cosa Nostra; obtained a guilty plea and a civil settlement of $110 million from National Health Laboratories, Inc. in a Medicare fraud case; and briefed and argued the first appellate case upholding the constitutionality of "roving" wiretaps.
She then served as a judge of the Superior Court in San Diego, presiding over a criminal trial calendar.
In 2002, Lam was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California by George W. Bush. In 2007, Lam was asked to resign by the Bush Administration. Subsequent to the dismissal, the Administration claimed that Lam did not allocate sufficient resources to prosecuting border crimes, echoing US Representative Darrell Issa
Darrell Issa
Darrell Edward Issa is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 48th, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was formerly a CEO of Directed Electronics, the Vista, California-based manufacturer of automobile security and convenience products...
's (R-CA) complaints.
On February 26, 2007, Lam joined Qualcomm
Qualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
as Senior Vice President and Legal Counsel for the Company’s Legal Team. On August 13, 2007, Lam took the role of acting general counsel at Qualcomm while "a nationwide executive search" was begun for a permanent replacement for Lou Lupin, who resigned as general counsel just after the finding by Hon. Rudi M. Brewster, United States Senior District Court Judge, that Qualcomm and its counsel engaged in egregious legal misconduct. While the inception of Qualcomm and its counsel's misconduct predated the hiring of Ms. Lam, there has been no public statement as to whether her hiring was predicated on the emergence of the scandal.
In November 2008, Carol was named as Deputy General Counsel for Qualcomm.
Healthcare fraud
Lam was an expert in prosecuting healthcare fraud, having authored a 954-page textbook on the subject. As U.S. Attorney, Lam took an interest in the case of San Diego's Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, which was owned by Tenet Healthcare Corporation, the nation's second-largest hospital chain. In 2002, government agents raided the hospital. In June 2003, the hospital's chief executive, Barry Weinbaum, was indicted on one count of conspiring to violate the federal anti-kickback statute and seven counts of offering and paying illegal remuneration. The hospital and a Tenet unit were indicted a month later. On February 17, 2005, a mistrial was declared when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Lam personally prosecuted the case in a second trial; after seven months in the courtroom and a record of four months of jury deliberation, the judge declared another mistrial on April 4, 2006.Tenet settled. Denying that it paid kickbacks to doctors for referrals of patients to Alvarado, Tenet paid $21 million to the government, agreed to shut down Alvarado Hospital and admitted that the case has led to "significant reforms" at hospitals around the country and that the company had been "distressed" to learn of "excessive payments" to some doctors.
Anti-corruption activity
Attorneys on Lam's staff, including Assistant United States Attorneys Jason Forge, Phillip Halpern and Valerie Chu, secured indictments against Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and contractor Brent R. Wilkes. Wilkes figured in the Cunningham scandal
Cunningham Scandal
The Cunningham scandal is a U.S. political scandal in which defense contractors paid bribes to members of Congress and officials in the U.S. Defense Department, in return for political favors in the form of federal contracts. Most notable amongst the recipients of the bribes was California...
.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, has reported that Lam was actively investigating Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (politician)
Charles Jeremy Lewis is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 40th, 35th and 37th, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, serving in the role during the 109th Congress.-Early life, education, and...
at the time of her dismissal. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Israel Emanuel is an American politician and the 55th and current Mayor of Chicago. He was formerly White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama...
and Senator Chuck Schumer, and others, asserted that Carol Lam was investigating Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (politician)
Charles Jeremy Lewis is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 40th, 35th and 37th, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, serving in the role during the 109th Congress.-Early life, education, and...
, suggesting that her firing by the Bush administration was politically motivated. However, the Washington Post and other news organizations reported that the investigation into Lewis was being run out by the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles in coordination with the Los Angeles FBI field office.
In January 2006, Lam announced the indictment of San Diego Gas & Electric
San Diego Gas & Electric
San Diego Gas & Electric is the utility that provides natural gas and electricity to San Diego County and southern Orange County in southwestern California, United States...
on five counts of environmental crimes regarding mishandled asbestos removal during the decommissioning of the Encanto Gas Holder site in Lemon Grove, California. A conviction as to some counts was reached by a jury after trial.
In December 2006, an attorney on Lam's staff, Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Alexander, convicted the Golden State Fence Company of Riverside, CA, and two of its executives, of hiring illegal immigrants. The Golden State Fence Company (a.k.a. Fenceworks, Inc.), was one of the contractors hired by the U.S. government to build the southern U.S. border fence. Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of Golden State Fence Co., and manager Michael McLaughlin were sentenced to serve three years of probation and perform 1040 hours of community service. Kay was fined $200,000 for his involvement in the crime and McLaughlin was fined $100,000. Golden State was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million dollars of illegal profits generated from hiring the illegal workers.
Key event timeline of the firing scandal
June 2003 - Barry Weinbaum, CEO Alvarado Hospital (owned by Tenet), indicted for conspiracy to violate the federal statutes.October 2004 - Leonard Senerote, Michael Uhl and Michael Snipes dismissed on No TX USA office.
February 2005 - Lam's name first appears on a firings list.
March 2005 - Leonard Leo e-mail.
October 2005 - 18 Republican lawmakers criticize Lam's handling of immigration cases (letter signed by Cunningham while under investigation).
March 2006 - Bush signs the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act.
April 2006 - Second mistrial in Lam's illegal-kickback trial of Alvarado execs.
May 5, 2006 - CIA director Porter Goss resigns unexpectedly.
May 10, 2006 - Lam notifies DoJ she planned to serve search warrants on Kyle Foggo, who resigned two days earlier as No. 3 official at the CIA.
May 10, 2006 - HHS announces forthcoming termination of Medicare payments to Alvarado/Tenet.
May 11, 2006 - Kyle Sampson e-mails deputy White House counsel William Kelley, re "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam ....
May 11, 2006 - LA Times reports Cunningham probe expanded to House Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA).
May 12, 2006 - FBI agents seizes records from Foggo's CIA offices and his suburban Vienna, Va.
May 17, 2006 - Tenet Healthcare Agrees to Divest Alvarado Hospital. Tenet will not lose Medicare money, civil settlement with the federal government.
May 18, 2006 - Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) provides false information to AP that Lam has prosecuted only 6% of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers.
July 31, 2006 - The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
quotes Prakash Sethi "GPOs extract extra profits of $5 billion to $6 billion" illegitimately.
December 7, 2006 - Michael Battle, director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, calls seven U.S. Attorneys to ask for their resignations.
December 13, 2006 - AAG McNulty curbs USA's prosecutorial powers, centralizes corporate fraud charging decision making.
February 15, 2007 - Carol Lam resigns as U.S. Attorney for San Diego just days after filing indictments in public corruption case.
Forced resignation
On December 7, 2006, Michael A. BattleMichael A. Battle
For the theologian and academic see Michael J. Battle.Michael A. Battle was the Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys at the United States Department of Justice until he resigned, effective March 16, 2007. He was the person who informed seven United States Attorneys on...
, director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys, called Lam and notified her that she must resign no later than January 31, 2007. Battle instructed Lam to explain that she had decided to pursue other opportunities. Following that phone call, Lam called Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
Paul McNulty
Paul J. McNulty is the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, having previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He held the position until July 26, 2007....
to find out why she was being asked to resign. McNulty said he wanted to take some time to respond since he didn't want to give an answer "that would lead" Lam down the wrong path. McNulty added that he knew Lam had been through a long trial (presumably the Alvarado Hospital case) and had great respect for her.
In a follow-up call with Battle, Lam requested additional time to ensure an orderly transition from office. On January 5, 2007, Battle said her request was "not being received positively" and that Lam "should stop thinking in terms of the cases in the office". Battle insisted that Lam had to depart in weeks, not months, and these orders were "coming from the very highest levels of government". Lam submitted her resignation January 16, 2007, effective February 15.
Many prominent Democrats, including Senators Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
and Diane Feinstein, allege that Lam's firing was part of a broader, vengeful move against prosecutors that have pursued political corruption cases that damaged the careers of Republican politicians, or that were not loyal enough to either the Republican Party or the Administration. Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Darrell Issa
Darrell Issa
Darrell Edward Issa is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 48th, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was formerly a CEO of Directed Electronics, the Vista, California-based manufacturer of automobile security and convenience products...
has stated that he takes "maybe one-twentieth" of the responsibility for Lam's firing.
Statistics compiled by Lam's office corroborate the assertion that total prosecutions in border crossing cases have declined over Lam's tenure.
However, the Justice Department itself defended Lam in an August 23, 2006, letter to Senator Feinstein. They asserted:
The immigration philosophy of the Southern District focuses on deterrence by directing its resources and efforts against the worst immigration offenders and by bringing felony cases against such defendants that will result in longer sentences. For example, although the number of defendants who received prison sentences between 1-12 months fell from 896 in 2004 to 338 in 2005, the number of immigration defendants who received sentences longer than 60 months rose from 21 to 77. Prosecutions for alien smuggling in the Southern District under U.S.C. sec. 1324 are rising sharply in Fiscal Year 2006.
In her own defense, Lam echoed the Justice Department's August letter, emphasizing quality prosecutions over sheer quantity. "When you take on more difficult investigations, the number of prosecutions might not be as high, but you have a larger impact on crime in the community." During her tenure as U.S. Attorney, Lam received both the Director's Award for Superior Performance and the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service.
United States Senator Orrin Hatch
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...
of Utah, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, stated on his April 1, 2007, appearance on NBC's Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
broadcast:
Carol Lam, it's amazing to me she wasn't fired earlier because for three years, members of the Congress had complained that there had been all kinds of border patrol captures of these people, but hardly any prosecutions. She was a former law professor, with no prosecutorial experience, and the former campaign manager in Southern California for Clinton, and they're trying to say that this administration appoints people politically? Of course they do.
Senator Hatch's description of Lam, however, was inaccurate; Lam was never a campaign manager for any candidate, nor a law professor, and she is an experienced prosecutor.
After a week of controversy, Hatch wrote a letter to Tim Russert
Tim Russert
Timothy John "Tim" Russert was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's Meet the Press. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted the eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview...
claiming that he "mispoke" in naming Lam several times, intending instead to name Alan Bersin
Alan Bersin
Alan D. Bersin serves as the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Commissioner Bersin was placed by President Barack Obama on March 27, 2010 as a recess appointment. As Commissioner, Mr. Bersin oversees the operations of CBP’s 57,000-employee work force and manages an operating...
, Lam's predecessor; however, Bersin likewise had never been a law professor and was an experienced trial lawyer.
Later career
When she left the U.S. Attorney's position in February 2007, she accepted the position of senior vice president and legal counsel for QualcommQualcomm
Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA...
.
She was named Attorney of the Year by the San Diego County Bar Association in February 2007. Los Angeles Daily Journal named to the list of "Top 75 Women Litigators".
Lam has been frequently mentioned as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
by observers of Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's administration.
Personal
Lam is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sau-Wing Lam of Tenafly, New JerseyTenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 14,488. Tenafly is an affluent suburb of New York City....
. She married Mark Steven Burnett, a geophysicist specializing in oceanography, on August 23, 1986.
Education
Lam received her B.A.Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
with a degree in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. She received her J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
in 1985.