Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Julie Dudley joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1988, working in Roanoke and Abingdon. Now she replaces John Brownlee as the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia.

Midway through her first morning as the region's top federal law enforcement official, Julie Dudley contemplated the change from the No. 2 position she'd held in the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"The big difference is you realize the buck stops here," said Dudley, who on Monday officially replaced John Brownlee as chief prosecutor for the Western District of Virginia.

Brownlee announced his resignation last month and said he was considering a run for Virginia attorney general. He is expected to formally announce his campaign today.

Dudley, who was Brownlee's top assistant for the past two years, is now the acting U.S. attorney.

It is a role she is unlikely to hold much past the upcoming presidential election. New administrations typically appoint new U.S. attorneys across the country.

Dudley declined to state her own political affiliation, but said she expects she will return to the ranks of assistant U.S. attorneys, where she has served for almost 20 years.

The new position marks a logical, if temporary, step for Dudley.

Dudley recalled her father, Colin Campbell, a criminal defense lawyer and later circuit court judge in Independence, saying he knew she'd be a prosecutor because she'd ask him, "How can you represent these people?"

After attending the University of Virginia, then law school at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., Dudley became a clerk in the Western District, working for a federal judge. She later moved to a position processing lawsuits filed by inmates.

In 1988, she joined the U.S. Attorney's Office, working in Roanoke and Abingdon in criminal, then civil cases, then taking administrative roles that culminated in two years as first assistant U.S. attorney.

Now 47, married and the mother of a 10-year-old son, Dudley said she thinks of the prosecutors and other office staff as family. "I've grown up with them," she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie Waering, one of only two current assistant prosecutors in the district with longer service than Dudley, called her a good choice for the top job.

"Julie has a completely well-rounded background," Waering said.

Dudley's low-key, friendly style is an important qualification, Waering said.

"The U.S. attorney sets the tone for the office," she said, adding that the top prosecutor must be a sort of ambassador to other agencies.

Tom Bondurant, the other assistant with a longer tenure than Dudley, called her "absolutely wonderful."

"She's done a little bit of everything. ... She's a wonderful trial lawyer, a wonderful person. We're just lucky to have her," Bondurant said.

Two Roanoke defense lawyers said Dudley's friendliness should not be mistaken for a lack of toughness.

"I think Julie is well-respected among the lawyers of the defense bar," Tony Anderson said.

He faced Dudley and Bondurant in a case that Dudley recalled as one of the most noteworthy ones in her career: the eight-week trial in 1998 of the Abed family, who faced about 100 charges linked to racketeering, arson and fire-bombing.

"The part of the case that involved my client they got convictions in," Anderson said, still sounding rueful.

David Damico, who was able to win an acquittal for the Abed family member he represented, called Dudley "as nice a person as I think I've ever met."

"The other side of that is if she says, 'This guy's guilty,' or 'This is the way I think it should be,' everybody believes her," Damico said.

Dudley said she plans to make no major changes in running an office that includes 20 other prosecutors. The prosecution priorities set by the Justice Department, terrorism and child pornography, will continue. So will, she thinks, the office's conviction rate of more than 90 percent, a rate in line with other federal districts.

A few hours into her new role, Dudley said the biggest crisis had been some malfunctioning videoconferencing equipment during the morning meeting with staff scattered across the district.

That had been handled, and Dudley sounded confident of the office's abilities to surmount the larger difficulties routinely faced by prosecutors.

"You present what you believe is a righteous case and you leave it up to the jury. That's what makes our system work."