On Thursday, the Senate confirmed the historic appointment of Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as the next U.S. attorney general. Thursday’s vote of 56-43 makes Lynch the first African-American woman to hold the position. She will succeed current AG Eric Holder, who is the first African-American to serve in the role. President Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president, nominated both Lynch and Holder.

With Lynch expected to be sworn into high office this week — as early as Monday — a question looms over the Brooklyn-based office she currently oversees: Who will serve as the next U.S. prosecutor for the Eastern District?

Based on news reports and insider speculation, the Eagle has identified four likely contenders to replace Lynch.

Kelly T. Currie

Kelly Currie is currently the chief assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District. Currie’s position makes him the office’s second in command and next in line to serve as interim U.S. attorney until a permanent replacement for Lynch is named. Currie assumed the position in November 2014, after Lynch was nominated for AG.

Currie first joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1999, joining Lynch’s first administration in the Eastern District. Currie later served as the deputy chief of the criminal division and chief of the violent crimes and terrorism section. In 2006, he prosecuted and secured the conviction of Khalid Awan, who was accused of providing money and financial services to a terrorist organization responsible for thousands of deaths in India.

Currie left public service in 2010 and joined Crowell & Moring LLP as a partner in white-collar defense before returning last November.

Currie’s background is rooted in the political realm and naturally expands to the legal arena. In the 1990s, Currie worked closely with Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine), and during the Irish peace process and decommissioning of paramilitary weapons of North Ireland, Currie joined Sen. Mitchell in Ireland for the negotiations.

“Kelly Currie is a highly experienced trial lawyer who is well respected inside and outside the courtroom,” Edwin Baum, the managing partner of Crowell and Moring’s New York office, said of Currie’s 2014 appointment as chief assistant U.S. attorney.

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Marshall L. Miller

Marshall Miller is currently the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Miller, like contender Currie, previously worked under Lynch during her first run as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District in 1999.  He left the office in 2003 to join NYU Law School as an assistant professor of law.

At NYU, Miller, 43, founded the NYU Federal Prosecution Clinic at the Eastern District of New York. Miller returned to the Eastern District in 2006 and in 2011was named chief of the EDNY’s Criminal Division, where he oversaw high-profile fraud cases and a number of terrorism prosecutions.

He served as lead prosecutor in U.S. v. Russell Defreitas, a case involving a plot to bomb a fuel tank and pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and U.S. v. Shahawar Matin Siraj, where two defendants were convicted of conspiring to detonate explosives in the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan.  He also contributed to the EDNY investigation into JPMorgan Chase’s hiring practices in China.

In April 2014, Miller was brought into a senior position at the Justice Department.

“Marshall’s departure will be a loss for the office,” Lynch remarked in a memo, obtained by The New York Times, to her staff after the announcement of Marshall’s DOJ role. “[H]is appointment to the second-ranking position in the criminal division is a demonstration of the great esteem in which the office is held throughout the department.”

James “Jim” McGovern took over as chief of the EDNY Criminal Division.

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Greg D. Andres

Greg Andres is presently in private practice working as a partner at the Manhattan law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. His primary concentration is white-collar defense in both criminal and civil courts.

Like Miller and Currie, Andres joined the EDNY office in 1999. From 2007-10, Andres served as chief of the criminal division and was recruited to the Department of Justice, were he worked as deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Criminal Division until 2012.

Andres unintentionally made news in 2011 when it was reported that a former Mafia deputy, Vincent Basciano (also known as Vinny Gorgeous), concocted a plot to kill Andres, who participated in the 2004 investigation into Basciano and the Bonnano crime family.

As an attorney with the Department of Justice, Andres testified before the Senate to request an increase in funding to battle Medicare fraud and pushed for stronger sentences by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for those that commit health care fraud.

“These proposed amendments, if they become law, will subject health care fraud defendants to the possibility of even greater prison time than they already face, a prospect that we believe will be a more effective deterrent,” Andres said in his March 2011 testimony.

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Christina Dugger

Christina Dugger, 47, is also in the private sector and is currently a managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co. And like the three mentioned contenders, Dugger also joined the EDNY as a federal prosecutor in 1999 and served in the office until 2008, where she was deputy chief of the Criminal Division.

She returned to the office in 2012 after one year at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and three years at JPMorgan. As The New York Times reported in 2014, Dugger was persuaded by Lynch to rejoin the office. She served as chief assistant U.S. attorney for Brooklyn until June 2014. Currie replaced Dugger later that November.

While in office, Dugger led the prosecution of former Brooklyn Assemblymember William F. Boyland Jr. on charges of bribery, fraud and extortion.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn declined to comment on any immediate hiring and appointment decisions.

U.S. attorneys are nominated by the president in consultation with the respective senators from the state where the vacancy occurs and are confirmed by the Senate. As of press time, no names appear to have been placed in contention for the position as the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn.