The new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York moves into the role after a stint at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., but he doesn't lack local experience.

Seth DuCharme, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr on Friday and sworn in that afternoon, joined the Brooklyn federal prosecutor's office in 2008 after working as an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

DuCharme specialized in counterterrorism, national security and cybercrime, serving as the office's national security cyber specialist and as a representative on the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council.

Before he was named criminal chief of the Eastern District in March 2018, shortly after Richard Donoghue became U.S. attorney, he led the office's national security and cybercrime section.

DuCharme and Donoghue effectively traded jobs this month, with Donoghue accepting the role of principal associate deputy attorney general at Main Justice. DuCharme had served in that role, in which he helped coordinate the department's work with U.S. Attorney's Offices around the country as the top deputy to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen, since December 2019. He left the Eastern District to become a counselor to Barr in March 2019.

Kelly Currie, a partner at Crowell & Moring and a former acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District, said he anticipates DuCharme's transition will be smooth, given his long-standing relationships in the Eastern District.

"He's well known to the office's law enforcement partners, which is really important and will give them reassurance and a sense of continuity as Rich Donoghue assumes his role in Washington," Currie said.

As chief of the national security and cybercrime section, Currie said, DuCharme was adept at balancing sensitive intelligence issues while guiding cases forward. That will be helpful in major cases, including United States v. Huawei Technologies, a corporate espionage prosecution that began while DuCharme was still in the Eastern District.

""There's a lot of different government stakeholders in that case," Currie said. "Seth leading the office, representing the office's interest, [will be] really well suited to that."

DuCharme excelled at "quietly engendering the trust of others" and conveying that he understood different perspectives, Currie said.

"Seth is a terrific lawyer. I would describe him as very grounded, very pragmatic," he said. "He proceeds and thinks about problems and cases in a careful, methodical way. Ultimately, I think his guiding North Star is 'do the right thing for the right reasons' and that's always been the tradition of the U.S. Attorney's Office, and I'm confident that's where Seth is going to be coming from as well."

DuCharme graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 2003.

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