January 6, 2021 may have been the infamous date of the attack on the United States Capitol, but it was also the day President Elect Biden announced four key nominations for the Department of Justice. Judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is Biden’s choice for Attorney General.

Judge Garland is the former Chief Judge of the DC Circuit and has served on the that Circuit since 1997. He attended Harvard University for his undergraduate and legal education. He served as a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the Second Circuit and for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the Supreme Court. Judge Garland also served in the Department of Justice as a special assistant to Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, 1979-1981. In 1989 he returned to the Department as an Assistant United States Attorney in the DC’s U.S. Attorney’s office. In 1993, he became a deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division at Main Justice and in 1994 was named the principal deputy associate attorney general under DAG Jamie Gorelick.

Lisa Monaco will be nominated to serve as Deputy Attorney General. She served in the Department of Justice for fifteen years, spending the majority of her time as a career federal prosecutor and eventually being appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General; Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General; and the first woman confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for National Security. She has also served as Counsel and Chief of Staff to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller and White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor. She earned her Juris Doctor at the the University of Chicago Law School.

Vanita Gupta will be nominated to serve as Associate Attorney General. She has served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Obama-Biden Administration. She is the president and chief executive officer of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Civil Rights Coalition. She earned her Juris Doctor at New York University.

Kristen Clarke has been named to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She started in career as a career attorney in the Civil Rights Division. She is currently the president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Law and has served as the head of he Civil Rights Bureau for the New York State Attorney General’s Office. She earned her law degree from Harvard University.