About Jay Lefkowitz

Jay P. Lefkowitz (born November 20, 1962) is an American lawyer whose career has spanned private litigation, senior U.S. government service, and the law school classroom. For more than three decades he was a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis and a member of the firm's worldwide management committee.
 

He is a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School (J.D. 1987, Harlan Fiske Scholar) and returned to Columbia Law as a lecturer in law, teaching a seminar on Supreme Court advocacy in which students take the roles of the justices.
 

As a litigator he served as lead trial and appellate counsel across securities, antitrust, intellectual property, product liability, FDA litigation, and white-collar defense for blue-chip clients, winning two landmark 5–4 U.S. Supreme Court decisions for the pharmaceutical industry that reversed three federal Circuit Courts of Appeals.
 

In government, Jay Lefkowitz served under two presidents — most prominently as U.S. Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea (2005–2009), Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, and General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. He writes frequently on law and public policy for The Wall Street Journal and Commentary. In 2026, after more than three decades of practice, he retired from Kirkland & Ellis.

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