Judge Sherri Lydon, J.D.

Bio

Judge Sherri Lydon graduated from Clemson University and received her law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. After law school, she practiced with Nexsen, Pruet, Jacobs and Pollard. She left Nexsen Pruet in 1990 to join the United States Attorney’s Office, where she prosecuted cases primarily in the areas of public corruption and white-collar crime. After leaving the United States Attorney’s Office, Lydon went into private practice with former U.S. Attorney E. Bart Daniel and Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Schools in Charleston. In 2003, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster asked Lydon to serve as the Chief of the State Grand Jury, a division of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office modeled after the federal system and responsible for prosecuting complex cases throughout the state.

She has been involved in some of the most complex, noteworthy, and widely publicized cases in South Carolina’s history. Judge Lydon was a prosecutor in “Operation Lost Trust,” an FBI undercover investigation involving corruption, narcotics, and racketeering activities within the state legislature. She also led the prosecution of one of South Carolina’s most prominent securities fraud cases involving HomeGold and Carolina Investors. In 2005, Lydon returned to private practice, where she focused on white-collar criminal defense work from 2005 until May 2018.

She is a member of the American Inns of Court and the American Law Institute. Lydon is committed to promoting respect for the rule of law and has been active in the ABA’s World Justice Project. She is also the recipient of the University of South Carolina’s 2013 Compleat Lawyer Award. In March 2014, Lydon was appointed to the South Carolina Ethics Commission. She served on the Commission as its Vice-Chair until 2017.

Judge Lydon was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina on May 24, 2018. As U.S. Attorney, she was the chief federal law enforcement officer responsible for federal criminal prosecutions and civil litigation involving the United States in the District of South Carolina.

In October 2019, former President Donald Trump nominated Lydon to serve as a federal district court judge. Following confirmation by the Senate, Judge Lydon was sworn in as a federal judge on December 12, 2019. She presides in Florence, South Carolina.