After graduating from Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, began her legal career by clerking for United States District Court Judge David F. Levi, in Sacramento, California from 1993 to 1994. Ms. then worked in private practice for seven years, including as a litigation associate at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco and a trial associate with Dorsey & Whitney, LLP, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and London, England. Ms. remained in civil practice, specializing in intellectual property litigation until July 2001, when she was hired by the USAO in Miami. . While she enjoyed civil practice, Ms. always wanted to be an Assistant United States Attorney. Two early career mentors — Judge Levi and Portia Moore from Morrison & Foerster — had worked at U.S. Attorney's Offices' and they, like many former AUSAs, described the job as the best of their careers. Ms. also wanted to serve her community. She was in the first generation of her family to graduate from college. She is the only member of her family to get an advanced degree. Personal experiences left her deeply committed to wanting to create safer communities for victims of crime. After several years of waiting for an opening at the USAO in Minneapolis, when Ms. brother moved to the West Palm Beach area, she applied for a position at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. On September 10, 2001, Ms. began serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida. She did a rotation through the Appellate Section and then joined the Major Crimes Section from late September 2001 until January 2004. While in that unit, she handled reactive cases and short-term investigations and cases, including narcotics, firearms, child exploitation offenses, immigration matters, credit card fraud, bank robbery, violent Judge Levi was the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California. Ms. Moore was an Assi