U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr.
Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. is leaving office on June 24 and will be replaced as acting SG by Ian Gershengorn, the principal deputy, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch called Verrilli, 58, “a brilliant lawyer, a devoted public servant and one of the most consequential solicitors general in American history.” Lynch said Verrilli “has been at the center of the foremost legal challenges of our time, most notably through his arguments in a series of groundbreaking cases before the Supreme Court.”
In a statement, President Barak Obama said:
“For five years, Solicitor General Don Verrilli has fought in our nation’s highest court for a better future, winning landmark cases that moved America forward. Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care; we’re combatting discrimination so that more women and minorities can own their piece of the American Dream; we’ve reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring that immigrants are treated fairly; and our children will now grow up in a country where everyone has the freedom to marry the person they love.”
Verrilli’s departure timetable mirrors that of former solicitor general Paul Clement, who resigned in June 2008, the last full year of George W. Bush’s presidency, in part so that his principal deputy, Gregory Garre, could become solicitor general for the administration’s final months.
In the case of Verrilli, Gershengorn will take over as acting solicitor general and he could be a full-fledged solicitor general, depending on whether the U.S. Senate would confirm his nomination. Gershengorn, like Verrilli, was formerly a partner at Jenner & Block.
Jenner partner Paul Smith, who leads the firm’s appellate and Supreme Court practice, said in a conversation before the announcement, “We would be very interested in talking to him about coming back, if and when he decides to leave.”
Verrilli joined the Justice Department in early 2009, serving first as associate deputy attorney general until February 2010, when he moved over to the White House counsel’s office. Obama nominated Verrilli as solicitor general to replace Elena Kagan who joined the Supreme Court in 2010. He was sworn in June 9, 2011.
In an interview with The National Law Journal soon after taking office, Verrilli said he had not sought out the position. “I more or less just jumped off a cliff” going to the Justice Department, he said, with no idea where it would lead. “I had not done public service in my many years in Washington, and I realized the clock was ticking. I wasn’t getting any younger, and I thought if I was going to do it, this was the time.”
During his tenure as solicitor general, Verrilli argued numerous cases challenging some of the most hotly contested administration policies, from health care reform to striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. That 2013 ruling in United States v. Windsor led to the landmark decision last year proclaiming a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, in which Verrilli also argued.
Verrilli’s halting performance during March 2012 arguments in the Affordable Care Act case NFIB v. Sebelius drew the most criticism, with CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin calling it a “train wreck” that would spell the end of the health care law. But that June, Toobin and other critics ate crow after the court ruled in the government’s favor, adopting an argument Verrilli had made.
His argument on April 18 defending the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration was his last as solicitor general.
