Vanessa Roberts Avery

Vanessa Roberts Avery was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut on May 9, 2022.  President Joe Biden nominated Ms. Avery to serve as U.S. Attorney on January 26, 2022, and the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination on April 27, 2022. 

Under Ms. Avery’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office continues to prioritize a variety of federal crimes and suspected violations of federal law, including gun violence, fentanyl/opioids overdose deaths, civil rights and hate crimes enforcement, child exploitation, human trafficking, financial frauds, public corruption, cybercrime, and national security issues.  Prosecutions and investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and its federal partners are often coordinated with state and local law enforcement.  Community engagement is also a critical component of the law enforcement response.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys and other staff appear regularly in schools and communities around the state regarding anti-violence, opioid dangers, civil rights and hate crimes prevention, human trafficking, and cybercrimes, as well as engaging in Project Safe Childhood, Project Safe Neighborhoods, Project Longevity, federal Reentry Court and Support Court.

Prior to her appointment as U.S. Attorney, Ms. Avery served as the Associate Attorney General and Chief of the Division of Enforcement and Public Protection at the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General. From January 2019 to April 2022, she led the affirmative litigation and investigations on behalf of the State of Connecticut in the areas of antitrust, opioids, government program fraud, consumer protection, child protection, environment, energy, finance, privacy, and civil rights. Ms. Avery served on the Attorney General’s Litigation Management Committee, the Connecticut Bar Association Policing Task Force, and led the COVID-19 Fraud Task Force in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Chief State’s Attorney’s Office.

From 2014 to 2019, Ms. Avery was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division in this District, prosecuting a variety of complex civil fraud cases under the False Claims Act, asset forfeiture cases, environmental violations, civil rights matters, and defending Bivens and medical malpractice cases.

From 2006 to 2014, Ms. Avery was a litigation attorney at McCarter & English LLP, where she focused on business and financial litigation, intellectual property, trust and probate, and product liability cases.  From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Avery was a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division in Washington, D.C.  From 1999 to 2003, she was an attorney in the Hartford Trial Group at Cummings & Lockwood LLC.

Ms. Avery is a graduate of Yale University and the Georgetown University Law Center.  She is a New Haven native and a graduate of the New Haven Public Schools.

Ms. Avery is the 54th U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, an office that was established in 1789.