Donald Beaton Verrilli Jr. (born June 29, 1957) is an American lawyer who served as the

Solicitor General of the United States The solicitor general of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. Elizabeth Prelogar has been serving in the role since October 28, 2021. The United States solicitor general represent ...

from 2011 into 2016. He was sworn into the post on June 9, 2011. On June 6, 2011, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed Verrilli in a 72–16 vote. President Barack Obama had nominated Verrilli to the post on January 26, 2011. Verrilli previously served in the Obama administration as the

associate deputy attorney general Associate deputy attorney general is a position in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General in United States Department of Justice. The number of positions varies widely depending on the staffing discretion of the deputy attorney general, but in ...

, and as Deputy Counsel to the President. He is currently a partner in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

office of Munger, Tolles & Olson and a Lecturer at Columbia University Law School, his alma mater.

Early life and education

Verrilli was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1957 to Donald and Rose Marie Verrilli. Verrilli graduated from Wilton High School in

Wilton, Connecticut Wilton is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 18,503. In 2017, it was the sixth-wealthiest town per capita in Connecticut, the wealthiest U.S. state per capita. Officially reco ...

, in 1975. He graduated '' cum laude'' from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1979 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and graduated with honors from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1983 with a Juris Doctor, where he was editor-in-chief of the ''

Columbia Law Review The ''Columbia Law Review'' is a law review edited and published by students at Columbia Law School. The journal publishes scholarly articles, essays, and student notes. It was established in 1901 by Joseph E. Corrigan and John M. Woolsey, who se ...

'', a

James Kent Scholar James Kent (July 31, 1763 – December 12, 1847), sometimes called the "American Blackstone", was an American jurist, New York legislator and legal scholar. His ''Commentaries on American Law'' (based on lectures first delivered at Columbia Co ...

, and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.Biography: Donald B. Verrilli, Jr.

Oyez Project The Oyez Project at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law is an unofficial online multimedia archive of the Supreme Court of the United States, especially audio of oral arguments. The website "aims to be a complete a ...

Career

After graduating from law school, Verrilli served as law clerk to Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1984 and then for Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1984 to 1985. Verrilli was a fellow at Columbia University Law School from 1985 to 1986, where he is now a Lecturer in Law. He then joined Ennis Friedman & Bersoff, in Washington, in 1986. then joined Jenner & Block LLP, in 1988, as an associate, and eventually became a partner. While working at Jenner & Block, Verrilli also was an adjunct professor at American University's

Washington College of Law The American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL or WCL) is the law school of American University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It is located on the western side of Tenley Circle in the Tenleytown section of nort ...

(spring 1995) and

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

(from 1992 to 2008). At Jenner & Block, Verrilli specialized in telecommunications, media and First Amendment law. In 2005, he represented the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) before the Supreme Court in '' MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.''. In 2007, he represented Viacom in '' Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc.''. During the same year, he also represented RIAA in '' Capitol v. Thomas'' and opposed the retrial of the case. Verrilli was appointed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

to become an

at the U.S. Department of Justice and served in this post from February 2009 to January 2010. In February 2010, Verrilli joined the Office of White House Counsel as a senior and deputy counsel to the president. By 2012, Verrilli had participated in more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, and given

oral argument Oral arguments are spoken presentations to a judge or appellate court by a lawyer (or parties when representing themselves) of the legal reasons why they should prevail. Oral argument at the appellate level accompanies written briefs, which also a ...

in seventeen of those. In addition to Grokster, these include two pro bono cases that were notable in the area of defendants rights. In '' Wiggins v. Smith'', Verrilli successfully argued that his client had been denied effective assistance of counsel. In '' Montejo v. Louisiana'', he unsuccessfully argued that his client's Sixth Amendment rights had been violated when he was questioned after having counsel appointed for him.

Work as Solicitor General

On January 26, 2011, President Obama nominated Verrilli to succeed Elena Kagan as Solicitor General of the United States. On May 12, 2011, the

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

voted 17-1 to forward Verrilli's nomination to the full Senate. On May 26, 2011, Senate Democrats filed for

cloture Cloture (, also ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. ' ...

on Verrilli's nomination. A cloture vote was withdrawn right before it was scheduled. Instead, the Senate on June 6 proceeded straight to an up-or-down vote on Verrilli's nomination. Senators then confirmed Verrilli in a 72–16 vote. Verrilli was sworn in on June 9, 2011, and became the 46th Solicitor General. He finished his position in June 2016; his final day on the job was Friday, June 25. On March 26, 27 and 28, 2012, Verrilli argued the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court. His performance on the 27th, the first involving substantive arguments regarding the constitutionality of the PPACA, was widely panned as a "disaster" for the Obama administration. However, he was vindicated on June 28, 2012, when the court ruled that the individual mandate and most of the Act was constitutional, albeit as a tax and not as an exercise of Congress’s power under the

Commerce Clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...

. His oral arguments were praised by some who remarked that "court arguments are not television anchor tryouts; they’re about the merits of an argument, and a review of the transcript of the oral arguments from that day (with the benefit of hindsight, of course) finds Verrilli made a strong case for the government’s taxing power." CNN legal commentator

Jeffrey Toobin Jeffrey Ross Toobin (; born May 21, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, blogger, and longtime legal analyst for CNN. He left CNN on September 4, 2022. During the Iran–Contra affair, Toobin served as an associate counsel on this investigation ...

, one of Verrilli's strongest critics, apologized on-air and said "This is a day for Don Verrilli to take an enormous amount of credit, and for me to eat a bit of crow, because he won, and everyone should know that that argument was a winning argument, whatever you thought of it." After hearing his arguments in '' Shelby County v. Holder'', Lincoln Caplan of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called Verrilli a "lawyer's lawyer" and said that he "isn't showy, but he is a deeply experienced and capable advocate who finds ways to make technical legal arguments that persuade a majority of justices. While he's not inspiring, he's often effective." In early June 2016, Verrilli announced that he would step down as solicitor general; Verrilli is the seventh longest serving solicitor general in U.S. history.

Personal life

In 1988, Verrilli married Gail W. Laster, who is director of the Office of Consumer Protection at the

National Credit Union Administration The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is a government-backed insurer of credit unions in the United States, one of two agencies that provide deposit insurance to depositors in U.S. depository institutions, the other being the Federa ...

(NCUA). They have one daughter.

References

External links

Appearances at the U.S. Supreme Court
from the