Beth Brinkmann | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 24, 1958 Toledo, Ohio, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (BA) Yale University (JD) |
Beth S. Brinkmann (born September 24, 1958) is an American lawyer who served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, heading up the appellate staff in the DOJ's Civil Division during the administration of President Barack Obama. She also served as Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States from 1993 through 2001. Brinkmann has argued 25 cases before the United States Supreme Court both in that role and in her later role as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the firm Morrison & Foerster. Currently, Brinkmann is a partner at the Covington & Burling law firm in Washington, D.C. [1]
Brinkmann graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1980 with a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1985. She served as a law clerk to Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Brinkmann then served as a law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 to 1987. Brinkmann then worked for four years as an associate with the small San Francisco litigation firm of Turner & Brorby, after which she served as an assistant federal public defender from 1991 through 1993 in Washington, D.C.
Brinkmann became assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General in December 1993. She argued her first case before the Supreme Court on March 23, 1994. Brinkmann was the tenth woman hired as an assistant to the Solicitor General, with five more women hired during her eight years in that office. [2] She is one of 726 women who have argued before the Supreme Court, from the first in 1880 through 2016. [3]
After leaving the Solicitor General's office, Brinkmann joined Morrison & Foerster in early 2002. As a partner at Morrison & Foerster and the chair of the firm's Appellate Practice Group, Brinkmann continued to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. "Every time you go up there, it is amazing, and an honor and privilege being there. You also feel very patriotic—at least I do," Brinkmann told the National Journal in 2002. [4] In a November 20, 2007 article in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Brinkmann told the paper that she had argued 22 cases before the Supreme Court in her career. Eighteen of those times were as a staff lawyer in the Solicitor General's office, Brinkmann told ABA Journal in an article that ran in the magazine's March 2005 issue. [5]
On April 3, 2009, Brinkmann was tapped to join the United States Department of Justice as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General heading up the Appellate staff in the DOJ's Civil Division. [6] After Obama left office, Brinkmann joined the law firm of Covington & Burling. [7]
In the March 12, 2008, issue of The New Republic, writer Jeffrey Rosen floated Brinkmann's name as a future federal appeals-court judge or Supreme Court justice, likening her to Chief Justice John Roberts by suggesting her as a possible "Democratic female John Roberts". Rosen also characterized Brinkmann as "moderate, pragmatic and pro-business". [8]
Playing the role of attorney for Electra, in June 2019 in Washington, D.C. Brinkmann participated in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Oresteia mock trial, based on the Orestia trilogy by the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus. [9]
The Solicitor General of the United States, the fourth-highest-ranking official within the United States Department of Justice, represents the federal government in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Solicitor General is appointed by the President and reports directly to the United States Attorney General.
Merrick Brian Garland is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Republican-led U.S. Senate effectively blocked Garland's appointment.
Morrison & Foerster LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 17 offices located throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe.
Drew Saunders Days III was an American legal scholar who served as Solicitor General of the United States from 1993 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. He also served as the first African American Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in the Carter Administration from 1977 to 1980. He was the Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law at Yale Law School, assuming that post in 1992, and joining the Yale Law faculty in 1981. From 1997 to 2011, he headed the Supreme Court and appellate practice at Morrison & Foerster LLP and was of counsel at the firm's Washington, D.C. office until his retirement from the firm in December, 2011. He earned his Juris Doctor degree at Yale Law School in 1966. He was admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court, and in the states of Illinois and New York.
Michael Boudin is a former United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 2001 to 2008. Before his service on the First Circuit, he was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010.
Neal Kumar Katyal is an American appellate lawyer and professor of law. He is a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm and is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center. During the Obama administration, Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010 until June 2011. Previously, Katyal served as a lawyer in the Solicitor General's office and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice.
Williams & Connolly LLP is an American law firm based in Washington, D.C. The firm was co-founded by Edward Bennett Williams and Paul Connolly in 1967. Williams left the partnership of D.C. firm Hogan & Hartson to launch his own litigation firm.
Preeta D. Bansal is an American lawyer who served as the General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to the federal Office of Management and Budget from 2009 until 2011. Prior to her work in the Obama administration, she served as a law partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and as the Solicitor General of New York during Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's first term. She also has been a member and past chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). She is currently a lecturer at MIT and senior advisor at the Laboratory for Social Machines based at the MIT Media Lab.
Todd Sunhwae Kim is an American attorney serving as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division. He earlier served as the first solicitor general of the District of Columbia for nearly 12 years. He was twice nominated by President Barack Obama for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, but the Senate held no hearings on his nominations, which expired without action.
Bessie Margolin was an American lawyer and activist. She was a U.S. Department of Labor attorney from 1939 until 1972, arguing numerous cases before the Supreme Court. Margolin undertook a large amount of litigation related to the Fair Labor Standards Act, creating a vast body of law in the area of employment standards in the process.
Kannon Kumar Shanmugam is an American lawyer known for his litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and is co-chair of the firm's litigation department, chair of the firm's Washington, D.C. office, and chair of its Supreme Court and appellate practice group. Shanmugam was mentioned as a possible Solicitor General or judicial nominee in the 2017–2021 Donald Trump administration.
Virginia Anne Seitz is an American attorney who specializes in constitutional law, labor law, employment law and administrative law. She served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice from 2011 until stepping down in December 2013. Seitz was confirmed to the post by the Senate in a voice vote on June 28, 2011.
Ian Heath Gershengorn is an American lawyer and former acting Solicitor General of the United States under President Barack Obama.
Mark I. Levy was an American lawyer who was a former deputy assistant attorney general in the United States Department of Justice, a former assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States, and a successful appellate attorney. In his career, he argued 16 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Caitlin Joan Halligan is an American lawyer who has served as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals since April 2023. She served as Solicitor General of New York from 2001 until 2007. President Barack Obama nominated her several times to fill a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but the U.S. Senate did not vote directly on the nomination, and in March 2013, Obama withdrew the nomination at her request.
Jeffrey Bryan Wall is an American attorney and former government official who served as the acting Solicitor General of the United States and the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States during the Donald Trump administration. He is now a partner and head of Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Washington, DC.
Beth Ann Williams is an American lawyer who has served as a board member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board since 2022 and the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy from 2017 to 2020. In her role as Assistant Attorney General, Williams served as the primary policy advisor to the United States Attorney General and the United States Deputy Attorney General. Before her governmental work, she was a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.
Deepak Gupta is an American attorney known for representing consumers, workers, and a broad range of clients in U.S. Supreme Court and appellate cases and constitutional, class action, and complex litigation. Gupta is the founding principal of the law firm Gupta Wessler LLP and a lecturer at Harvard Law School, where he is an instructor in the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
Amit Agarwal formerly served as Solicitor General of Florida, an office he held since June 2016. In October 2021, Agarwal joined the law firm of Holland & Knight as a partner.
Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar is an American lawyer who has served as solicitor general of the United States since October 2021. She served as acting solicitor general from January 20, 2021, at the start of the Biden administration, until President Joe Biden sent her nomination to the U.S. Senate on August 11, 2021, when she was prevented from serving while the nomination was before the Senate as a result of the terms of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.
