Jessica Lieber Smolar is a certified mediator and arbitrator with extensive litigation experience. She previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. At the time of her retirement in March 2025, she was the Chief of the Criminal Division’s Economic Crime, National Security and Cyber Crime Section and served as the Office’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC) Coordinator.

As Deputy Chief of the Civil Division, Ms. Smolar litigated and supervised a wide range of complex civil litigation including employment, civil rights, land condemnation, False Claims Act, medical malpractice, tort and personal injury cases. She was recognized for her ability to resolve civil cases by the Executive Office of United States Attorney’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney (Civil Division). That award recognized her “exceptional ability to resolve civil cases promptly and fairly – in whole or in part- during pretrial stages of litigation.”

During her tenure in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorneys’ Office, Ms. Smolar handled and supervised large-scale fraud, counterterrorism, and cyber cases, many of which were international in scope. Ms. Smolar’s cyber cases and investigations involved cryptocurrency scams, ransomware, darknet markets, espionage, and computer intrusions.

Ms. Smolar has also received several Department of Justice and law enforcement awards for her work as an Assistant United States Attorney, including the 2022 Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania’s 2022 Dick Thornburgh Award for Sustained Outstanding Performance by an Assistant United States Attorney, and the United States Attorney’s Victim Advocate Award (WDPA) for dedication and extraordinary contributions in the service of victims. She has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law teaching Cyber Law and National Security.

Ms. Smolar is a graduate of Brown University and earned her Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law. Ms. Smolar was a litigator at the New York law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft and the Pittsburgh law firm Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir prior to becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney.