Musical Chairs: The Obama White House Counsel’s Office
(And ODAG picks, too.)
Last night we wrote about some of the top-notch talent that will be filling senior legal positions in the Obama Administration. These are big names, and you probably also read about them in big publications, like the Legal Times or the Wall Street Journal.
ATL is willing to drill down deeper. We now bring you personnel news at more junior levels. If you graduated law school in the past 15 or even 10 years, you might actually know some of these people.
Our prior post focused on two of the most prestigious parts of the Department of Justice: the Solicitor General’s office, and the Office of Legal Counsel. We now turn our attention to two other top offices: the White House Counsel’s office, and the office of the Deputy Attorney General.
Over 300,000 people applied for 3,300 positions in the Obama administration. After going through a ridiculous screening process, these fine folks landed 20 of the most coveted legal jobs in the country.
See if you know any of them, after the jump.
A caveat: we believe these picks to be accurate, and many of them have been confirmed — either by other publications or by us, through direct contact with the individuals in question or close associates. But if you see an error, please email us. Thanks.
Obama has been praised — and sometimes criticized — for the elitism of his hires. Not surprisingly, in reviewing the names below, you’ll notice a few themes: legal academia, Supreme Court clerkships, and stints at law firms whose names start with “W” (especially WilmerHale, aka “the Democratic administration in exile”).
Office of the White House Counsel
As previously reported, President Obama has selected Gregory Craig — a prominent D.C. litigator and Williams & Connolly partner, perhaps best known for extracting President Clinton from the impeachment mess — as his White House counsel.
Deputy White House Counsels
Update / Correction (1/28/09): These hires have been confirmed by the White House. But we have an update and a correction.
The update is that Dan Meltzer will serve as the first among equals, or principal deputy (to be more precise, “Principal Deputy White House Counsel to the President and Deputy Assistant to the President”). The correction is that Norm Eisen’s title will be “Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform.”
Associate White House Counsels
Being an associate White House counsel is one of the best jobs a young lawyer can have. To get one, it helps to have previously held another one of the best jobs a young lawyer can have: a Supreme Court clerkship.
The rich get richer. As we previously wrote, “Supreme Court clerkships have become the Willy Wonka golden tickets of the legal profession. So many top-shelf opportunities within the law, such as tenure-track professorships and jobs in the SG’s office, are… reserved for members of the Elect.”
Susan Sher, the vice president for Legal and Governmental Affairs and General Counsel at the University of Chicago Medical Center will be an associate counsel to President elect Barack Obama. Sher is a close friend of Michelle Obama — and her boss at the U of Chicago — as well as Valerie Jarrett — incoming White House adviser…. Sher served as Mayor Daley’s Corporation Counsel between 1993 and 1997, where she worked in City Hall with Jarrett.
Oh, and she’s a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. So it’s nice to know the Obama administration is open to people who didn’t go to Harvard / Yale / Stanford or clerk for a Supreme Court justice.
Office of the Deputy Attorney General
As previously announced, President Obama has selected David Ogden — shockingly enough, a partner at WilmerHale and former Supreme Court clerk (OT 1982 / Blackmun) — as Deputy Attorney General, the number two official at the DOJ.
As first reported by ATL, the principal assistant deputy attorney general, or number two to the number two, will be Kathryn Ruemmler. Ruemmler is a former Enron prosecutor turned Latham & Watkins partner.
Here are other members of the ODAG team:
*************************
The Obama Administration clearly places a premium on pedigree, at least in its legal hires. There’s not a Regent Law School grad in sight. An H-Y-S law degree and a federal circuit court clerkship seem to be the minimum credentials required for entry. A Supreme Court clerkship is practically a prerequisite.
Will this impressive brain trust ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice? Time will tell. For now, congratulations and good luck to the distinguished lawyers listed above.
Update (1/28/09): For additional hiring news, please see Musical Chairs: More Additions to the White House Legal Dream Team.
Earlier: Musical Chairs: Obama Turns Justice Department Into Mini-Law School
(91) 
Comments
first? i can't believe i'm doing this.
Huh?
Wizipan Garriott - Special Assistant for Indian Affairs is a 2008 grad of U of AZ Law. Go Cats!
cahill layoffs
i'm also willing to "drill down deeper"...if you get my drift
Mike Gottlieb was one of the best NDT (college policy) debaters ever. He won the national tournament twice and was named the top individual debater both years.
Roberto Gonzalez? I thought he was still looking for a job...
Trevor Morrison was a cornell prof until last year. smart dude, but like most profs, he's academic and not very practical. maybe the administration will ask the white house staff to write law review articles whenever the tough decisions come up.
LOBSTER!!!!!!!!!
Congrats Roberto! So proud of you and happy for you :) (nope, not the former atty general under Bush; there is another Roberto Gonzalez and yes he is my friend).
WH was going to announce layoffs this week, but it looks like they got a government bailout.
It's flattering for WilmerHale, but it's also a loss of talent.
curious how vigilant the screening process was... one of the people on the list had a major cocaine habit as an undergrad.
I could tell this was a Lat post before even reading the author's name. It's well-written, concise, substantive, and informative.
It does not have a typo in every paragraph. It isn't just a cut-and-paste from American Lawyer. And it doesn't beat a topic to death. "Accept your offers!" "Half-Skadden!"
10 - that would be ALBERTO gonzales. reTTTard
United Nations + "Human rights" = CHILD PORN
"UN Human rights worker caught with child pornography"
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/01/20/2009-01-20_human_rights_worker_with_united_nations_.html
There is a wide age range in these hires. Meltzer and Krass are way older than some of the kids who are just five years out of law school.
roberto is a great guy and a good salsa dancer.
Good god. Revenge of the nerds.
Don't recognize any of them but I surmise with a name like Cassandra Butts much can be accomplished.
None of these nerds holds a candle to the LOBSTER in KASH"S ASS
Do any of these candidates look like a CATFISH?
I love all of these hypocrite Conservative dolts criticizing the "academics" for not being "doers."
Where were you during the last decade when the Republicans appointed neither academics nor achievers in the private sphere--THEY APPOINTED MORONS!
So your choice is: Conservative moron from REGENT UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL or liberal genius from T-14.
Obama should just tell these fools that Jesus told him to appoint them because Jesus hates homosexuals and women's rights and they'll come on board.
Discuss.
23 = nerd. Shouldn't be allowed to post under the hallowed number 23, in deference to MJ.
23
You must suffer from a Napolean complex. Are you a legal midget that can give blowjobs while standing?
Ruemmler, like Eisen, is former Zuckerman Spaeder. She was an associate there before going to Justice.
Jesus hates conservatives...and Mark Warner.
"Why do you think I care if you win the Superbowl, Mark?" said Jesus "I have better things to do than answer sports related prayers."
On the conservative side, there are a handful of D.C. firms / offices that have a revolving door to top government jobs: Gibson Dunn, Wiley Rein, Cooper & Kirk, Sidley, etc.
What are the equivalent progressive firms - besides Wilmer, obviously?
"Me Chinese, me play joke, me put pee pee in your coke."
-Eliza Gray
there are more associate white house counsels than just those people.
there are more associate white house counsels than just those people.
24, 25, 28--Glad I hit a nerve (I'm 6' +, IVY)
You DB's probably voted for Bush '04.
You were like:
"Well, he did get thousands of brave young Americans killed in a war that had no purpose, but I really like his anti-gay agenda"
I want an apology from you conservatives for pushing the worst President in United States History. Just be men about it. Admit you voted for an idiot because Jesus told you to and we all can move on.
GULC = CATFISH
24, 25, 28--Glad I hit a nerve (I'm 6' +, IVY)
You DB's probably voted for Bush '04.
You were like:
"Well, he did get thousands of brave young Americans killed in a war that had no purpose, but I really like his anti-gay agenda"
I want an apology from you conservatives for pushing the worst President in United States History. Just be men about it. Admit you voted for an idiot because Jesus told you to and we all can move on.
32, wow your credentials are impressive! You are six feet and a half-inch tall and you graduated from Cornell. You must be a blast at parties.
Did your dad go to Cornell with the groundskeeper?
I realized it was a Lat post when he mentioned "The Elect" or finishing school for the elect or whatever for eight time in the article. Can we stop putting that in there every other paragraph on these articles? Seriously.
8 - Some of the biggest conservative legal names are former academics: Scalia, Posner, Easterbrook, Bork, John Yoo, Jack Goldsmith.
Do you view them as insufficiently practical too?
I have to agree with 34.
You Conservatives gave us a Depression, lower environmental standards, a war with no end. . .
You failed so utterly and completely that you shouldn't be allowed to show your faces.
28 - In addition to Williams & Connolly and WilmerHale, maybe Covington & Burling (where Eric Holder came from)?
37 - I wouldn't cite John Yoo in support of anything.
I have to agree with 34.
You Conservatives gave us a Depression, lower environmental standards, a war with no end. . .
You failed so utterly and completely that you shouldn't be allowed to show your faces.
70% of Republicans don't believe in evolution.
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/poll_gallup_evolution_survey.php
35- So you claim you aren't a moron, you just keep intellectual company with morons?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
38 / 41 - At least we know how not to double-post.
27 - is Mark Warner related to the Cardinals' starting quarterback, Kurt Warner?
I have to agree with 34.
You Conservatives gave us a Depression, lower environmental standards, a war with no end. . .
You failed so utterly and completely that you shouldn't be allowed to show your faces.
What is the liberal answer to Regent Law School - a school of ideological purity, even if low ranking?
Well-played, 42.
But I'm a Republican and I'll counter that!
How can you call us anti-intellectual morons when we tried to make Sarah Palin Vice President of the United States while knowing full well that she didn't even know Africa was a continent.
You can't possibly think we're a group of idiots now!
32: The worst president in United States history. Ha! Now that is hilarious. All that money for an Ivy league education (or so you claim), and apparently you never learned history. (See, e.g., Nixon, Ford, and most recently, Carter.)
Anyway, YOU are a douche. How 'bout we conservatives admit what you ask us to if "you liberals" admit that your guy wouldn't even be here if he were white - that is, if you can take enough time to wipe his spunk off your fawning mouths in order to say it.
Good luck, Six Foot Plus IVY Douche.
PALIN 2012!!!!
Someone in the Obama transition team should read this Frank Rich column, "The Brightest Are Not Always the Best":
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/opinion/07rich.html
27 - it's Kurt Warner. and Jesus <3s everyone, even your clown self.
Liberals gave us 9/11.
Because they didn't want to "give us an unending war" they didn't do what was necessary and the result was an attack on the homeland.
Clinton wanted to be a peace-time president so bad, and it cost us.
48- You're in denial.
Barack isn't President because he's black (you ignorant racist), he's President because your putz screwed up so bad ANY Democrat would've been elected.
We're in a DEPRESSION now. Worst economy in 70 years!!!! Bush trumped up evidence to SEND US TO WAR.
What did the guys you mentioned do that's WORSE than send us into a Depression and trick us into going into a 7 year trillion dollar war?
Ugh, I'm arguing with a guy that doesn't believe in evolution.
52 - More Americans have died in Iraq than on 9/11.
If you count the tens of thousands of soldiers who have lost limbs, the numbers aren't even close.
46 - Northeastern School of Law in Boston is the liberal equivalent of Regent: dumb klds, dumber profs (who are ALL burned-out radicals from the '60's who think their views are still relevant), it has a student budget north of $60k/year, and maybe 15% of the class will ever be employed in the legal profession after graduation (discounting temp work, ID, paralegal, etc).
48= closeted gay racists. Indeed he hates everyone because he hates himself most of all. 48, just come out and let go of all that shame and rage.
53, perhaps you should read the history of the 2008 primaries and learn how Obama beat Hillary. Gee, why did 90-95% of blacks vote for Obama over his fellow Democrat?
32- Angela is cheating on you and Dwight can kick your ass.
57-
Would you be saying the same thing about Palin if she had managed to get enough of the gun-toting-creationist-christian vote for a win?
Sarah Palin--proof that Republicans hate America.
Dear Mr 6 foot ivy leauge ignoramus:
Firstly, every conservative now believes in evolution after setting eyes on michelle obama. Secondly, Bush may not have been the second coming of Reagan, but we as a nation elected him including many liberals who knew Kerry was a JOKE.
Good luck obama, see you on the unemployment line in 2012
58 for president!
59, I don't even know what you're trying to say. If Palin won by getting 90% of the gun-toting-creationist-christian vote, then yes Palin won because she is a gun-toting-creationist-christian.
Do you think the same about Obama winning in the primaries because >90% of blacks voted for him over Hillary due to his race?
Why so much hate 48?
"If you graduated law school in the past 15 or even 10 years, you might actually know some of these people."
Lat -
Over the past six months this blog has transformed from a semi-useful and amusing source of BigLaw information to a posting site for juvenile idiots with nothing even remotely relevant or interesting to say (see posts 4, 5, 9, 21, 22, 27, 29, 33...you get the drift). I think it is safe to say that no one who graduated law school 10 - 15 years ago is still coming back to read this crap.
42-
The Lord, Jesus Christ, created the heavens and earth in 7 days. Satan, THE DEVIL, placed all of this "science" to confuse unbelievers into believing in evolution.
70% of my intellectuals agree with this. Now wipe some semen from your mouth because Jesus's love taught me to hate homosexuals.
-48
42-
The Lord, Jesus Christ, created the heavens and earth in 7 days. Satan, THE DEVIL, placed all of this "science" to confuse unbelievers into believing in evolution.
70% of my intellectual equals agree with this. Now wipe some semen from your mouth because Jesus's love taught me to hate homosexuals.
-48
"70% of my intellectual equals agree with this."
That would be 70% of the individuals with an IQ of 80 or less (aka the "real america"). Son - why don't you do what Jesus would have done and go out and buy another gun. Bomb an abortion clinic. Hate some people. Die.
67, way to pick up on sarcasm. So what's your IQ?
Well, new era or change or not, knee-jerk political correctness appears to be alive and well, at least on this blog. Many of you need to calm the f down, already.
How can you tell that someone (like 67) is a liberal?
He has no sense of humor and is unable to recognize satire or parody.
damn you greener grass. damn you to hell!!!
Liberals = commie pinko faggots
Thank god for Prop 8!
All these folks saying the war didn't have a purpose -- I guess they would prefer Iraqis to live today under the brutal thumb of Saddam Hussein, who gassed his own citizens, rather than having democracy and the ability to choose their own leaders, for good or ill. We freed the Iraqi people from oppression -- that is something to be proud of.
72 - What if I convinced you and your brother to go into a burning building because I said your parents were in there. So you two go into the building and find out it was actually two strangers in there. Your brother dies while trying to save them but you get them out.
You'ld call that a win, right? You'ld pat me on the back and thank me for lying because of the positive outcome of saving others! Sure, you wouldn't have risked your brother's life if I had told the truth. And sure your brother died because of my lie, but you wouldn't mind, would you?
That's what Bush did. Our American brothers and sisters would not have died if he hadn't lied to us. But he did, and they died. Thanks GWB.
thank gawd that http://www.evilesq.com dude hasn't slipped through the white house gauntlet
73--Except it was obvious at the time that there were no WMDs. And if there were, there were better ways of containing them than war. The only reason to go to war was human rights -- to bring democracy to an oppressed people.
The comments can be an interesting place to find other perspectives. I sincerely value this aspect of the internet. However, a small amount of jerks on this board have become a tyrannical minority, using super-aggressive techniques to block others from the discussion. They are deliberately insulting and offensive to minorities and women, thus preventing these groups from joining the dialogue.
The comments section are a money maker for any site, and ATL has allowed its comments section to be taken over by people who post frequently, but spew absolutely inane and insane pseudo-conversation-starters about lobsters and racism. It's hard not to notice that a site based to covering the profession of law, for and about lawyers, is making money off idiots.
I suspect the site is more a public a service than anything else - it's unlikely Elie or anyone else is getting rich off this thankless job - but I wish they'd try to follow basic internet policy of not letting weirdos take over. Most sites now do this. It might acctually make the site more profitable, since right now it's pretty NSFW.
28 -- Sidley? Really?
Also, on the progressive side, I would say... pretty much every other law firm.
76 - I agree. the comments didnt really bother me until the last 3 or 4 months. maybe it's all the newly unemployed with time to kill? it's becomming really distracting. i used to enjoy reading the comments - I remember the Prop 8 discussions in particular being really fantastic, substantive, diverse perspectives. but now? the comments are practically unreadable. moderate please!!!!
64 - I am ten years out of law school and an avid reader (as are many of my friends / colleagues).
Don't judge a website by the commenters. They are not a representative sample of the readership.
Most days I don't read ATL comments (but today I am bored and have time on my hands).
I don't know whether I should be happy or sad that I turned down an offer from WilmerHale.
28 - I think Arnold & Porter is another left-leaning firm with political juice.
77 - Why not Sidley? Home to Carter Phillips, Peter Keisler, the late Rex Lee....
With regard to 55, as noted on its web site,
"Northeastern Ranked Top Public Interest Law School
Two sister publications, The National Jurist and preLaw Magazine, rank Northeastern as the best public interest law school in the nation. Northeastern was the only law school in New England to make the top 10 list." Moreover, there are 8 Northeastern University School of Law graduates currently practicing law at WilmerHale.
I love how the ivory tower "elitists" can't stop bashing Regent University. If Regent were really as bad as they claim, then they would have no reason to continually try to tear it down to raise themselves up a notch.
The fact is, ivory tower "elitists" hate anyone who doesn't tow the party line. They want people who think like them, talk like them, look like them and Hob Knob in the same circles as them. They share the same desire for dissent and freedom as Mao, Stalin and Lenin.
I find it amusing that these same "elite" think that they get to define the debate on their own terms. Those terms demand that any institution that does not pass their scrutiny will be maligned and graduates from the institution will be ridiculed. Instead of judging individuals, the "elite" like to attack the institution from which they individual graduated in order to prop up their own sense of worth.
I have news for you "elitists", intelligence is not contingent upon attending a certain institution. As much as you might like to imagine your "superiority", you are only fooling yourselves.
I am sick and tired of the "elitist" "thought" which claims that only they have a monopoly on intelligence. We don't live in an Oligarchy, no matter how much you morons might wish it were so.
What the hell is Regent University? There's about twenty-five or thirty schools in the Country worth remembering the names of. The rest are just indistinguishable trash.
83, it's "toe" not "tow the line."
You're welcome. But don't worry, I'm judging you as an individual, not as a Regent graduate.
85, To begin with I am not a Regent graduate. Don't they teach you not to jump to conclusions in your "elite" circles?
Further, "Toe the line" (from "Toe the mark") paints the picture of individuals lining up on a line or mark. "Tow the line" paints the picture of a proverbial rope or line that each individual must latch onto and pull. Apparently the "elite" can't stand it that someone might make a new colloquialism out of an existing colloquialism.
Thank you for demonstrating your snobbish elitism. I wonder if you ivory tower folks realize that you are held in utter contempt by the "average folk."
FYI: Those "average folk" are a whole lot harder to govern than you think.
Wow, i'm impressed with wilmer. they got a lot of people in. if you think about it, it makes sense. the people there are both really smart and somehow really really nice - a combination rarely found these days. way to go wilmer. they are on top of my list of places to try to lateral to.
Would Hogan & Hartson be considered liberal or conservative these days?
Dan Meltzer out of Harvard, and to White House -- SUPER! This hopefully means we get Martha Minow as Dean. Meltzer's a nice guy and great scholar, but Minow relates much better to students and would make the best Dean. This way, everyone's happy.
--HLS Student
I'm willing to bet Mike Gotlieb wrote #6.
Update post here:
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/01/obama_white_house_counsel_2.php