Brett M. Kavanaugh

Brett M. Kavanaugh is a Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court.

Kavanaugh graduated from Yale College in 1987 and from Yale Law School in 1990, where he was a Notes Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and then for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 1992-1993, Kavanaugh worked as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. During October Term 1993, Kavanaugh served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1994 to 1997 and for a period in 1998, Kavanaugh was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr.

Kavanaugh was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., from 1997 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, Kavanaugh served as Associate Counsel and then as Senior Associate Counsel to the President. From July 2003 until his appointment to the court in 2006, he was Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary to President Bush. Since joining the Court, Kavanaugh has taught full-term courses in Separation of Powers at Harvard Law School (Winter Terms 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012), in National Security and Foreign Relations Law at Yale Law School (Fall Term 2011), and in Constitutional Interpretation at Georgetown University Law Center (Fall Term 2007). He has been named the Samuel Williston Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School during Winter Terms 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Before joining the bench, Kavanaugh argued cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. and Fifth Circuits, and other state and federal courts. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Kavanaugh is an ex officio representative from the Judiciary to the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is President of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court. He serves on the Board of Directors of the D.C. Circuit Historical Society. Kavanaugh is a member of the American Law Institute, the Lawyers Club of Washington, the John Carroll Society, and the Federalist Society. Kavanaugh was born in Washington, D.C., in 1965, is a graduate of Georgetown Prep and Mater Dei School, and is a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington. He and his wife Ashley have two daughters, Margaret and Liza.