Judge Pollak entered duty as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York on November 1, 1995. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1975 and received her J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1978, where she was Articles and Book Review Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Following graduation from law school, Judge Pollak served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Timbers on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Thereafter, from 1979 to 1986, she was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York.
In August 1986, Judge Pollak became an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where she served as Chief of the Narcotics/OCDETF Unit from 1991 to 1994, and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 1994 to 1995. She also served as International Affairs and National Security Coordinator for the United States Attorney's Office. She remained at the United States Attorney's Office until her appointment as a Magistrate Judge in November 1995.
Judge Pollak is a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where she has served as a member of the Federal Courts Committee, the Committee on Women in the Legal Profession, and the Criminal Law Committee. She is Chair of the Eastern District CJA Panel Committee and has also served as a member of the Eastern District Advisory Committee on Civil Practice and Rules. Judge Pollak has also served as a Master in the Inns of Court for the Federal Bar Council. She has also participated in Moot Court, mock trial and trial advocacy programs at Columbia, NYU, Cardozo, St. John's, Brooklyn and New York Law Schools.