Jay Lefkowitz
Official Website
Professional Timeline
1980s
Undergraduate Degree
2011-2014
Late 1980s–early 1990s
1989–1993
(George H.W. Bush administration)
1990s
2001
(George W. Bush administration)
Early 2000s
J.D., Columbia Law School; Harlan Fiske Scholar
Active in the movement to allow Soviet Jews ("Refuseniks") to emigrate near the end of the Cold War.
Director of Cabinet Affairs and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Domestic Policy Council.
Handles school-voucher cases in Wisconsin and Florida; represents Wisconsin in litigation making it the first state to implement a school-voucher program.
General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget; architect of the policy allowing limited federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy; left the White House in 2003.
2005–2009
U.S. Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea.
May 2008
Appointed to the Honorary Delegation accompanying President Bush to Jerusalem for Israel's 60th anniversary.
2011
2013
Wins PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing at the Supreme Court; named Law360 "MVP of the Year" (Appellate).
Wins Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett; named to The National Law Journal's "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America".
2013–2014
c. 2014
2016
2018
Pro bono defense of Williamsburg storekeepers; the prosecution is dropped.
Wins Corber v. Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals before the Ninth Circuit (en banc) for Teva.
Defends the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program for intervenor parents.
Wins Association for Accessible Medicines v. Frosh (4th Cir.); a New York appellate court allows the Davids teacher-tenure challenge to proceed.
2026
Retires from Kirkland & Ellis after more than three decades.