Dorothy Ames Jeffress, known as Amy Jeffress, is an attorney and former public official in the United States. She is a partner at the law firm

Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP is an American multinational law firm. A white-shoe firm, Arnold & Porter is among the largest law firms in the world, by both revenue and by its number of lawyers. History Arnold & Porter was founded in 1946 ...

Early life and education

Jeffress is the daughter of William H. Jeffress Jr., a prominent

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

defense attorney, and Judith Jeffress, a social worker. Jeffress graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

and obtained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in political science from the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. She completed her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

. She worked as a law clerk for Judge Gerhard A. Gesell, and then, following his death in 1993, completed her clerkship with Judge

Thomas F. Hogan Thomas Francis Hogan (born 1938) is a United States federal judge, Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who served as director of the Administrative Office of the United States Cour ...

Career

During the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

, Jeffress worked for the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

(DOJ) as a prosecutor. She worked as a national security counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder and then as the Justice department attache at the U.S. embassy in London for three years. During her tenure as a national security prosecutor at the DOJ, she consulted with U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who then agreed in 2008 to unseal documents from the FBI investigation into the

2001 anthrax attacks The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax (a portmanteau of "America" and "anthrax", from its FBI case name), occurred in the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 ...

. As an advisor to Holder, she created interagency task forces to review the cases of detainees at the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

. In 2014, Jeffress joined the law firm

as a partner, with a focus on criminal defense, national security law, and white collar business practices. In November 2015, she was also appointed as a public advocate at the

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants ag ...

(FISC). As a public advocate, she contributed as an amicus curae after being asked to examine intelligence gathering and retention practices by national security agencies and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

, and she wrote the FBI practices "go far beyond the purpose for which the Section 702-acquired information is collected in permitting queries that are unrelated to national security" and "These practices do not comply with ... the Fourth Amendment." In 2016, Jeffress participated in the mock trial of ''Winston vs. Oceania'', based on the

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

novel

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, which aired on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

. In 2018, Jeffress represented

Lisa Page The following is a list of controversies involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Throughout its history, the FBI has been the subject of a number of controversial cases, both at home and abroad. Files on U.S. citizens The FBI has m ...

. In 2020 and 2021, Jeffress represented Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a U.S. diplomat involved in a fatal car crash in the United Kingdom.

Honors and awards

* 2006 Attorney General's John Marshall Award

Personal life

Her brother Jonathan Jeffress has worked for the Office of the Federal Public Defender. Jeffress is married to Christopher R. Cooper, Judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...

Merrick Garland Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ...

officiated at their wedding.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffress, Amy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Williams College alumni Free University of Berlin alumni Yale Law School alumni 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers Law clerks United States Department of Justice lawyers Arnold & Porter people