PERSONNEL FILE: New federal attorney announced

CLARKSBURG - Sharon Potter will be the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia after being sworn in Oct. 6 in Clarksburg.

She is the first woman to permanently hold that job.

A 47-year-old Wheeling resident, she has served as an assistant U.S. Attorney since 1992 and helped the FBI form a cybercrimes task force.

She is a Charleston native and daughter of attorney Tom Potter, who served as co-chairman of President Bush's West Virginia campaign finance committee in 2000.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a member of the House of Representatives, nominated Potter for the post. As the state's only republican congressional member, she alone had the authority to make nominations to the president.

Potter replaces Thomas Johnson, who became a federal judge for the Southern District of West Virginia. In 2001, Johnston was appointed by Bush instead of Potter for the attorney's job.

Potter graduated from Vanderbilt University and California Western School of Law.

Previously, she worked with the West Virginia Public Service Commission and Martin and Seibert in Martinsburg and as an assistant district attorney in Pennsylvania and assistant prosecutor in Berkeley County.