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TRENTON
– Acting Attorney General Paula T. Dow
swore in Phillip Kwon as First Assistant Attorney
General on Wednesday at the Hughes Justice
Complex.
Kwon was a Deputy Chief of
the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the District of New Jersey. Gov.
Chris Christie named Kwon to the position
of First Assistant on Dec. 15, when he announced
the appointment of Dow as the new Attorney
General.
“During his 10 years
in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Phil
Kwon rose by his acumen and skills to be a
deputy chief in the Criminal Division,”
said Acting Attorney General Dow. “He
tried high-profile corruption cases for the
office and supervised gang and white-collar
crime prosecutions. His talent and experience
make him an ideal selection for First Assistant.”
“I am honored by the
confidence placed in me by Governor Christie
and General Dow,” said Kwon. “I
look forward to meeting the challenges of
this new position and working to advance the
policies and priorities of the governor and
attorney general.”
Kwon joined the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in September 1999 as an Assistant U.S.
Attorney in the Criminal Division, focusing
on crimes involving drugs, gangs, counterfeiting,
white-collar fraud, and immigration fraud.
Kwon then became an AUSA in
the Special Prosecutions Division, where he
worked on corruption cases and trials, including
those involving former Hudson County Executive
Robert Janiszewski, former Hudson County Freeholders
Nidia Davila-Colon and William C. Braker,
former East Orange Councilman Zachary V. Turner,
and others. He also secured convictions of
those involved in the sale of fraudulent birth
certificates from the Hudson County Registrar’s
Office. Mr. Kwon was also a prosecutor on
the trial team that convicted former Newark
Mayor and State Senator Sharpe James and Tamika
Riley in their federal corruption case.
In 2005, Kwon was named Chief
of the Violent Crimes Unit, where he supervised
the office’s gang prosecutors. In 2006,
Kwon was named a Deputy Chief of the Criminal
Division, directly overseeing the Commercial
Crimes Unit, the Terrorism Unit, and the Violent
Crimes Unit.
Kwon received his undergraduate
degree in 1989 from Georgetown University,
and his law degree in 1994 from Rutgers University
School of Law in Newark. From 1994 to 1997,
Kwon was an associate at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene
& MacRae in Newark. From 1997 to 1999,
he was a law clerk to the Honorable Harold
A. Ackerman, U.S. District Court Judge in
Newark.
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