President Obama Nominates Virginia A. Seitz as Director of OLC

The White House

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts, 1/5/11

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

  • Brigadier General Allison A. Hickey, USAF (Ret.), Under Secretary for Benefits, Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Jenni R. LeCompte, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of the Treasury
  • Steve Muro, Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Virginia A. Seitz, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice
  • Lafe E. Solomon, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board

President Obama said, “The extraordinary dedication these men and women bring to their new roles will greatly serve the American people.  I am grateful they have agreed to serve in this Administration and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

Virginia A. Seitz, Nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice
Virginia Seitz is a partner in Sidley Austin LLP’s Washington, D.C. office where she focuses on appellate litigation before the federal courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Ms. Seitz has over 20 years of litigation experience and has worked on more than 100 Supreme Court briefs and petitions for certiorari and hundreds of filings in lower courts.  She was counsel of record on the amicus brief filed on behalf of retired military officers in Grutter v. Bollinger, which was cited by the Supreme Court in the oral argument and opinion in that case.  Before joining private practice, Ms. Seitz clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Associate Justice William J. Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court.  From 1995 until 2000, she served on the Board of Directors of the Congressional Office of Compliance, which promulgates regulations and adjudicates disputes concerning legislative branch employees under the Congressional Accountability Act.  She received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Duke University, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and holds a J.D. from Buffalo Law School, where she graduated first in her class.