On Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris announced four additional members who will join the Office of the White House Counsel. These individuals are Biglaw partners who have previously served senior roles during the Obama administration.
Jonathan Cedarbaum
Jonathan Cedarbaum, a partner at WilmerHale and a Harvard University and Yale Law School graduate, will return to public service and join the White House Counsel’s Office. He will serve as the Deputy Counsel to the President and National Security Council Legal Advisor.
At WilmerHale, he leads the firm’s False Claims Act group and advises on regulatory and policy issues relating to cybersecurity and privacy. Since April, he has been acting as the Senior Counsel for litigation for the Biden-Harris campaign and has been on leave from his law firm role. Under Obama’s administration, he served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General, Principal Deputy Assistant, and Deputy Assistant for the Office of the Legal Counsel (OLC). He also worked as an advisor to the International Criminal Tribunal President for the former Yugoslavia and was a Bristol Fellow in the Solicitor General’s Office. He has also worked as an Attorney-Advisor in the OLC and was a member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s amicus panel. He returned to WilmerHale in 2011 after a two-year stint at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Danielle Conley
Also a partner at WilmerHale, Danielle Conley will join the Biden administration as the Deputy Counsel to the President. At WilmerHale, she co-chairs the anti-discrimination practice and has worked on a wide range of civil rights, anti-discrimination, and government enforcement actions. Earlier this year, Pinterest hired her to lead the investigation into the company’s workplace culture after it received complaints of racial discrimination from former employees.
She also works at the Department of Justice Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition as a Deputy. Under Obama, she was the Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. During her tenure, she was at the forefront of bringing changes in policing practices and provided strategic advice on an array of regulatory, litigation, and policy issues. She is a graduate of Tulane University and Howard University School of Law.
Stuart Delery
Stuart F. Delery, a litigation partner at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, will join as the Deputy Counsel to the President. At Gibson, he co-chairs the National Security Practice Group and is also a member of the firm’s Appellate and Constitutional Law and White Collar Practice Groups. He was also one of the lead lawyers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients’ successful challenge to the rescission of the DACA program in the U.S. Supreme Court.
During the Obama administration, he served as Acting Associate General of the United States, the third-highest position at the Department of Justice. Remarkably, he was the most senior DOJ official who was openly LGBTQ. He also worked on defending Congressional statutes, including the Affordable Care Act. He also served other positions, including Senior Counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder and a clerk to two Supreme Court Justices. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Yale Law School.
Jonathan Su
Jonathan Su, Deputy Office Managing Partner at Latham & Watkins LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, will join as the Deputy Counsel to the President. He is also a partner in the firm’s White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice. Previously, Su also served as the Chair of Latham’s Global Pro Bono Committee. In 2011, he was the recipient of the U.S. Attorney’s Award for Excellence in Prosecution of Fraud.
His significant achievements include leading a team of IRS and FBI agents in securing convictions of the leaders of a $78 million Ponzi scheme for 1,000 victims in California and the East Coast. He also led the Maryland part of the federal prosecution relating to the District of Columbia’s largest embezzlement ($49 million). During the Obama administration, he worked as the Special Counsel to the President. He is a University of California at Berkeley and Georgetown University Law Center graduate.
Commenting on these appointments, President-elect Joe Bidden said, “The charge facing our administration is as big as it is essential: restoring faith in American government. We are assembling an accomplished and experienced legal team to ensure this administration operates ethically, transparently and always in service of the American people.”