Anne Swern, a longtime prosecutor who rose through the ranks to become first assistant district attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, has left the agency. Her last day was Feb. 28, more than 33 years after she joined the agency right out of law school. She worked under four district attorneys: Eugene Gold, Elizabeth Holtzman, Charles Hynes and, most recently, Kenneth Thompson.
As first assistant, Swern’s responsibilities included overseeing the office’s alternative sentencing policy and its Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison program, developing and enacting the borough’s problem-solving courts, and assisting the office’s work on re-entry matters. The office has been lauded for its work in diversion, incarceration alternatives and re-entry (NYLJ, Dec. 27, 2013). She also coordinated efforts with other agencies, including the police department and Office of Court Administration.
