Jamil Jaffer

Contributor

Jamil N. Jaffer currently works at Kellogg Huber, a Washington, DC-based trial litigation firm. Immediately prior to returning to the firm, where he had worked following law school and a federal appellate clerkship, Mr. Jaffer served in the White House as an Associate Counsel to the President. In that position, Mr. Jaffer handled Defense Department, State Department, and Intelligence Community matters, and served as the White House Counsel’s primary representative to the National Security Council Deputies Committee on a range of national security, intelligence, and foreign affairs matters.<br /> Prior to serving in the White House, Mr. Jaffer served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he handled a wide range of national security issues, with a focus on counterterrorism and intelligence matters. Mr. Jaffer was one of the primary brief writers on In re: Directives [redacted] Pursuant to Section 105B of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – a significant litigation matter involving foreign intelligence surveillance. In that capacity, Mr. Jaffer worked on briefs at the trial and appellate levels, including briefing before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review for only the second time in that court’s nearly 30-year history. For his work on the litigation, Mr. Jaffer was awarded the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Special Initiative. Mr. Jaffer also led the National Security Division’s team of lawyers working on cybersecurity and other classified matters, and was among the group of lawyers awarded the Director of National Intelligence’s 2008 Legal Award (Team of the Year – Cyber Legal).<br /> Prior to joining the National Security Division’s front office, Mr. Jaffer served as Senior Counsel for National Security Law and Policy in the National Security Division, as well as in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, where, among other things, he worked on the confirmations of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.<br /> Mr. Jaffer served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Mr. Jaffer also worked on Capitol Hill as a policy aide to Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and on a number of political campaigns.<br /> Mr. Jaffer holds degrees from UCLA (B.A. cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1998), the University of Chicago Law School (J.D. with honors, 2003), and the United States Naval War College (M.A. with distinction, 2006). While in law school, Mr. Jaffer served as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review, Managing Editor of the Chicago Journal of International Law, and National Symposium Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.