Barbara Underwood to be named acting Attorney General following Schneiderman's resignation

The New York State Solicitor General, Barbara Underwood, will take over as acting Attorney General when Eric Schneiderman steps down at the close of business on Tuesday.

The announcement came in a tweet from Amy Spitalnick, press secretary for the New York State Attorney General's Office.

This morning, I’m grateful to work with the best colleagues in the business - including Barbara Underwood, who will be acting NY AG. She’s argued 20 cases before SCOTUS, clerked for Thurgood Marshall, & much more. The work continues.

— Amy Spitalnick (@amyspitalnick) May 8, 2018

 Underwood was appointed Solicitor General in January 2007. The following is Underwood's bio as it appears on the New York Attorney General's Office Senior Staff page:

Barbara D. Underwood was appointed Solicitor General in January 2007. Prior to her appointment she served as Counsel and as Chief Assistant to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. From 1998 to 2001 she was the Acting Solicitor General and Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. She has held executive positions in the Queens and Brooklyn District Attorneys’ Offices, and served as a trial attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. She has argued 20 cases in the United States Supreme Court, as well as many cases in the state and federal courts of appeals. She has served as Chair of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Council on Criminal Justice of the New York City Bar Association. She was Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Visiting Professor at New York University School of Law, and Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School. She was a law clerk to Chief Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. She received a B.A. from Harvard University (Radcliffe College) and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Schneiderman announced his resignation late Monday night, after an article was published in the New Yorker in which two women accuse Schneiderman of physically abusing them. In all, four women have come forward. All four of the women say they were in romantic relationships with Schneiderman when the alleged incidents occurred. 

More on Schneiderman's resignation and the response by local officials can be found here.