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Who

Rakoff has served as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York since 1996.

Backstory

Rakoff grew up in Philadelphia and attended nearby Swarthmore College, going on to earn a Master's from Oxford and a J.D. from Harvard Law. After clerking for Judge Abraham Freedman of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Rakoff spent two years at Debevoise & Plimpton; he then signed on as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, a job he held for seven years. Rakoff spent much of the '70s and '80s in private practice, working for a handful of New York law firms (most recently at Fried, Frank) until President Bill Clinton appointed him to the Federal bench in 1996.

Of note

Rakoff has been involved in a variety of high-profile cases over the years, from securities crimes and allegations of corporate fraud to intellectual property claims and terrorism charges. (He's handled the downright ridiculous, too, such as the case of a husband and wife who filed suit against McDonalds for making their child fat.) In 2000, Rakoff issued a precedent-setting ruling against the digital music retailer MP3.com, a case that paved the way for the recording industry's suits against Napster and like-minded sites. In 2003 he oversaw the SEC's case against Worldcom, one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history.

The case that generated the most attention for Rakoff in recent years, though, was his ruling in United States v. Quinones in 2002, in which he declared the current federal death penalty unconstitutional. Pointing out that an "unacceptably high rate" of people convicted of capital crimes were later found to be innocent, Rakoff concluded that the death penalty "is tantamount to foreseeable, state-sponsored murder of innocent human beings." Although the ruling received mass media attention and polite praise—the New York Times put out an editorial applauding the verdict—it was quickly overturned on appeal.

Personal

Jed and his wife, Ann, a homemaker with a PhD in education, have three daughters. They live in Larchmont. Jed's brother, Todd, is a professor at his alma mater, Harvard Law. His older brother, Jan, was killed in the Philippines in 1983 when he interrupted a thief robbing his hotel room.

Off hours

Rakoff supposedly considered a career in songwriting before he decided on law, and occasionally finds opportunities to off show his musical side. He penned lyrics to the Southern District's annual "Courthouse Follies" performance, where he reportedly wore a blonde wig.