Michael Bernard Mukasey ( ) (born July 28, 1941) is an American lawyer, presently the 81 Attorney General of the United States, and follows Alberto Gonzales, who resigned from office. Mukasey also served for 18 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, six of those years as Chief Judge. He has received several awards, most notably the Learned Hand Medal of the Federal Bar Council. Mukasey is the second Jewish U.S. Attorney General.