Michele L. Crawford is an attorney with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Criminal Division. She currently serves as the Department’s liaison to the federal judiciary, and spearheads several inter-agency policy initiatives for the Department. Previously, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida (Miami), then she joined DOJ’s Asset Forfeiture & Money Laundering Section in Washington, D.C. where she was assigned to litigate the forfeiture claims of the largest and longest-running forfeiture case in history, that of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI). Thereafter, she came to DOJ’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT), and served first as a liaison to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), then as Regional Director for Asia & the Pacific, and then as an attorney on the Merida Initiative, a multi-year, multi-million dollar program of assistance for rule of law reform in Mexico. She has traveled to 17 different countries in these capacities, and is proficient in French. She is a graduate of Syracuse University with a Bachelor’s Degree in French and in International Relations. She earned her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law and is licensed to practice law in Florida and Maryland.