Claire McCusker Murray

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Claire McCusker Murray
Claire McCusker Murray official portrait.jpg
United States Associate Attorney General
Acting
In office
May 14, 2019 – January 20, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byJesse Panuccio (acting)
Succeeded by (acting)
Personal details
Born
Claire Virginia McCusker

(1982-04-19) April 19, 1982 (age 39)
New Jersey, U.S.
Spouse(s)Michael Murray
EducationHarvard University (BA)
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (DEA)
Trinity College, Cambridge (MPhil)
Yale University (JD)

Claire McCusker Murray (born April 19, 1982) is an American lawyer who served as acting Associate Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice during the presidency of Donald Trump. She served in this position from May 14, 2019 [1] until Joe Biden assumed the presidency on January 20, 2021.

Early life and education[]

Raised in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey by Leo and Susan McCusker, she graduated from Mountain Lakes High School as the valedictorian and a Presidential Scholar in 2000 and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2016.[2]

Murray graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in government magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa on an Augustus Clifford Tower Fellowship in 2004, then went to France for a Diploma of Advanced Studies in political studies from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in 2005, and to the United Kingdom for a Master of Philosophy in classics from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2006 (each with distinction). She went on to earn her Juris Doctor in 2009 from Yale Law School as a Coker Fellow and was an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal.

After graduating law school, she served as a law clerk for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2009 to 2010, then for Associate Justice Samuel Alito on the United States Supreme Court from 2012 to 2013.[3] In 2010, between her appellate clerkship and starting at the Justice Department, she won a Temple Bar Scholarship from the American Inns of Court to examine the legal system in the United Kingdom, including the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

Career[]

After returning to the United States, she worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Criminal Division from 2010 to 2012.[4]

She worked as an associate (2013–2015) and then partner (2015–2017) at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.[5]

As associate counsel for the White House, Murray played a role in the successful confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, for whom she had clerked while he was on the circuit court.[6] [7] After William Barr became United States Attorney General in February 2019, she became a counselor to the Attorney General and then the principal deputy associate attorney general in May 2019, in which capacity she served as acting associate attorney general pending the confirmation of a permanent associate attorney general.

In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump seriously considered nominating her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but nominated Justin R. Walker instead.[8]

Personal life[]

In 2010, she married Michael Murray,[9] with whom she has four children.[10]

References[]

  1. ^ "Attorney General William P. Barr Announces Appointment of Claire Murray as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General". www.justice.gov. May 14, 2019.
  2. ^ Alumni Hall of Fame Claire McCusker Murray Class of 2000, Mountain Lakes High School. Accessed September 8, 2019.
  3. ^ "Barr Eyes Ex-White House Lawyer for Top Justice Department Post". finance.yahoo.com.
  4. ^ Rogers, Abby (February 11, 2003). "What It Takes To Get An Impossibly Prestigious Supreme Court Clerkship". Business Insider. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  5. ^ Schoenberg, Tom; Johnsson, Julie; Robison, Peter (July 20, 2019). "Boeing Has Friends in High Places, Thanks to Its 737 Crash Czar". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  6. ^ Ryan Lovelace (September 3, 2019). Search and Destroy: Inside the Campaign against Brett Kavanaugh. Regnery Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-62157-976-2.
  7. ^ Lovelace, Ryan; AM, 2018 at 08:29 (2018-07-11). "Kavanaugh Confirmation Team Takes Shape, Boosted by Former Clerks". National Law Journal.
  8. ^ Daley, Kevin (March 5, 2020). "Frontrunners Emerge for New Vacancy on Influential Appeals Court". The Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  9. ^ "Claire McCusker, Michael Murray". The New York Times. September 5, 2010. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  10. ^ Nelson, Steven (July 13, 2017). "Federal Pot Policy in Hands of Little-Known DOJ Official". US News and World Report. Retrieved October 8, 2019.

External links[]

Legal offices
Preceded by United States Associate Attorney General
Acting
2019–2021 		Succeeded by
Matthew Colangelo
(acting)
Retrieved from ""