Valerie E. Caproni - General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel

Valerie E. Caproni graduated magna cum laude from Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She obtained her law degree summa cum laude from the University of Georgia in 1979. While in law school, she served on the Georgia Law Review, was the winner of the Russell and Talmadge Moot Court competitions and was inducted into Order of the Coif.

Following graduation, Ms. Caproni clerked for the Hon. Phyllis Kravitch, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. In September 1980, she began work as an associate in the litigation department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City.

In 1985, Ms. Caproni left Cravath to become an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. In early 1989, she left the U.S. Attorney's Office to become General Counsel of the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC). At UDC, Ms. Caproni supervised a legal staff of approximately 20 and was involved in many major economic development projects in New York, including the Times Square Redevelopment Project.

After approximately three years at UDC, Ms. Caproni returned to the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1992. She served as Chief of Special Prosecutions and Chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section before becoming Chief of the Criminal Division in 1994. As Chief of the Criminal Division she supervised approximately 100 Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Ms. Caproni remained Chief of the Criminal Division until she departed in 1998 to become the Regional Director of the Pacific Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

At the SEC, Ms. Caproni oversaw the enforcement and regulatory programs of the SEC in the nine far western states, managing a staff of approximately 250 lawyers, accountants and examiners located in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. While at the SEC, Ms. Caproni increased dramatically the cooperation between the SEC and federal prosecutors in order to maximize the impact of enforcement actions. In 2001, Ms. Caproni returned to New York as Counsel at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, specializing in white collar criminal defense and SEC enforcement actions.

In August 2003, Director Mueller named Ms. Caproni as General Counsel of the FBI's Office of the General Counsel.