Joan Azrack

Joan M. Azrack is Chief United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York. At the time of her appointment to the bench in 1990 she was an Assistant United States Attorney in that District. She became Chief Magistrate Judge in 2000.

Judge Azrack earned her B.S. degree from Rutgers University in 1974, and her J.D. degree from New York Law School in 1979. From 1979 until 1981 she served in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under its Honors Program. In 1981 she became an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, a position she retained until her judicial appointment in 1990. During her tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney, she served as Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Section; Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section; and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. She was also a Visiting Instructor at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy at Harvard Law School.