Barbara L. McQuade
Barbara L. McQuade is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama, and is the first woman to serve in her position. McQuade also serves as vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and co-chairs the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee.
Significant case accomplishments during McQuade’s tenure include:
- the conviction of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and more than 30 others on public corruption charges;
- the conviction and life sentence of an Al-Qaeda operative for attempting to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009;
- the conviction and 45-year sentence of a doctor who lied to patients about having cancer so that he could bill Medicare for expensive chemotherapy treatments;
- the conviction and $4.3 billion fine against Volkswagen for cheating on emissions tests; and
- the conviction and $1 billion fine against Takata Corp. for fraudulently concealing defective airbags.
McQuade also joined with other law enforcement leaders to launch Detroit One, a violence reduction strategy and community partnership. Since Detroit One began in 2012, homicide rates have gone down 24 percent.
Before becoming U.S. Attorney, McQuade was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit for 12 years, serving as Deputy Chief of the National Security Unit.
Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, McQuade practiced law at the firm of Butzel Long in Detroit from 1993 to 1998, and served as a law clerk to Hon. Bernard A. Friedman on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1991 to 1993. From 2003 to 2009, McQuade served as an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, teaching criminal law in the evenings.
Born in Detroit, McQuade is a 1987 graduate of the University of Michigan and a 1991 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. She and her husband have four children.