Individually and collectively, the Commissioners possess extensive experience in the criminal justice system and in law enforcement corruption-related issues, providing a broad and diverse amount of experience to the Commission. The Commissioners oversee a staff of five attorneys and an Executive Director.

Michael F. Armstrong
David Acevedo
Vernon S. Broderick
Kathy Hirata Chin
Edgardo Ramos
James D. Zirin

Michael F. Armstrong
Michael F. Armstrong was appointed the Chair of the Commission on June 1, 2005. He is a partner in the Litigation Department of Kronish Lieb Weiner & Hellman LLP, and is a nationally known trial lawyer and senior litigator with extensive public and private experience in criminal and white-collar matters. Mr. Armstrong was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1962 to 1967, and served as the Chief of the Securities Fraud Unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office from 1965 to 1967. He was the Chief Counsel to the "Knapp Commission," which investigated allegations of police corruption in the New York City Police Department in the 1970s. Mr. Armstrong also served as the District Attorney for Queens County, New York in 1973. Mr. Armstrong is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the New York Bar Foundation, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is Counsel to the New York Urban League and has served on the Board of Directors for the New York Legal Aid Society and as a member of the Federal Legislation and the Drug Law Evaluation Committees of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Mr. Armstrong earned his LL.B. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from Yale University.

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David Acevedo
David Acevedo is a Chief Trial Attorney in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he supervises a team of attorneys and investigators in conducting investigations of trade practice fraud, solicitation fraud and market manipulation and in enforcing the Commodity Exchange Act. From 1988 to 1999, Mr. Acevedo was an Assistant District Attorney at the New York County District Attorney's Office, where he investigated and prosecuted a wide range of cases including homicides. He earned his J.D. from Boston College School of Law.

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Vernon S. Broderick
Vernon S. Broderick is a litigator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he concentrates on complex commercial litigation. Mr. Broderick was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York for eight years. While at the U.S. Attorney's Office, he served as Chief of the Violent Gangs Unit and investigated and prosecuted cases involving organized crime, international narcotics trafficking and violent crimes including murder, kidnapping, assault, and robbery extortion. Mr. Broderick was also a recipient of the Justice Department's Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in both 1997 and 1998. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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Kathy Hirata Chin
Kathy Hirata Chin is a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Ms. Chin served as a Commissioner on the New York City Planning Commission from 1995 to 2001. She has also served on the Federal Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Eastern District of New York, on Governor Mario M. Cuomo's Judicial Screening Committee for the First Judicial Department, and on the Gender Bias Committee of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Fairness. She earned her J.D. from Columbia University.

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Edgardo Ramos
Edgardo Ramos is a partner in the Governmental Investigations Practice Group at the law firm of Day, Berry & Howard. Mr. Ramos was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York for eight years, serving as the Deputy Chief of that office's Narcotics Unit and Organized Crime/Drug Enforcement Task Force. Mr. Ramos is vice-chair of Aspira of New York, Inc., and he serves on the criminal law committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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James D. Zirin
James D. Zirin is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. He has been a trial lawyer for over 30 years and has handled a wide variety of white collar criminal and complex commercial litigation. Mr. Zirin is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He is also a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a trustee of New York Law School, a member of the advisory board of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, a former director and member of the executive committee of the Legal Aid Society, and a past vice president and trustee of the Federal Bar Council. He earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.