WilmerHale

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Partner

Chair, Regulatory and Government Affairs Department

Co-Chair, Crisis Management and Strategic Response Group

Named a 2018 "Lifetime Achiever" by The American Lawyer and consistently named "Lawyer of the Year" by Best Lawyers in America, Jamie Gorelick has had a career spanning the legal, policy and corporate landscapes.

In giving her their highest ranking, clients say, "when I think of crisis management, I think of her.” They cite Ms. Gorelick’s “unique knowledge and understanding of the legal and political landscape” (Chambers and Partners).

As one of Washington's best-known litigators, Ms. Gorelick has represented corporations and individuals in a wide array of matters, particularly in the regulatory and enforcement arenas, involving issues as diverse as antitrust, environmental regulation, securities enforcement, national security regulation, etc. Ms. Gorelick is among our leaders in congressional investigations, has helped many institutions address issues relating to gender and race, and is sought as a counselor on climate issues. A leader in the bar, she was President of the District of Columbia Bar from 1992 to 1993 and has played many important roles in the American Bar Association.

Ms. Gorelick was one of the longest serving Deputy Attorneys General of the United States, the second highest position in the Department of Justice. In that role, she supervised the entire Department, including its litigation and law enforcement divisions and the United States Attorneys' Offices. Ms. Gorelick arrived at Justice from the Department of Defense, where she was General Counsel. There, she helped structure the Department's involvement in the consolidation of the defense industry in the 1990s and was awarded the Secretary of Defense Distinguished Service Medal for her service. Earlier in her career, Ms. Gorelick was Vice Chair of the Task Force on the Audit, Inspection and Investigation Components of the Department of Defense. She was also Counselor to the Deputy Secretary of Energy and Assistant to the Secretary, who awarded her the Secretary's Outstanding Service Medal.

Ms. Gorelick has served on numerous government boards and commissions, particularly in the national security arena. She is a current member of the Defense Policy Board and a former member of the Defense Legal Policy Board at the US Department of Defense. Ms. Gorelick was a member of the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the "9/11 Commission"). She was a long-serving member of the Defense Policy Board and is a former member of the Defense Legal Policy Board at the US Department of Defense. She also was a member of the CIA's National Security Advisory Panel, former President Bush's Review of Intelligence Committee and former President Clinton's Advisory Committee to the Presidential Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (which she co-chaired), among others. She maintains a strong interest and expertise in cybersecurity and other aspects of national security. She was a member of the Commission on Science and Security at the Department of Energy and the Continuity of Government Commission.

A Broad and Deep Background

Ms. Gorelick's diverse experience in both the public and private sectors—combined with her experience in the corporate boardroom and in the international arena—enables her to assist organizations operating in competitive and complex markets. She regularly helps companies address crises that involve all branches of government as well as reputational concerns. Her recent matters have involved both educational and other non-profit institutions, as well as industries as diverse as financial services, telecommunications, technology, agriculture, algorithmic trading, biotechnology, government contracting, etc., with subject matters traversing gender equality, market competition, data privacy, cybersecurity, criminal defense and board governance, among others.

Ms. Gorelick is also one of the few people who has not only prepared witnesses for congressional hearings, but also questioned witnesses at hearings and served as a witness herself, in various governmental roles. She handles congressional hearings as an integral part of her crisis management practice, and in the last two years alone, she has helped prepare senior executives for hearings involving a broad range of subjects as varied as industrial accidents, telecommunications mergers, technology issues and environmental concerns.

Professional Activities

Ms. Gorelick has written numerous scholarly articles and is the co-author of a leading treatise on the maintenance of corporate documents, Destruction of Evidence (Wiley 1983). She Co-Chaired the American Bar Association's Commission on Legal Ethics 20/20 and is a noted expert on legal ethics. She taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School and has been a guest lecturer at universities across the country. She was a member of Harvard's Board of Overseers and its Overseers' Visiting Committee to Harvard Law School. She is a frequent lecturer on corporate governance and business ethics and was the 2004 Raytheon Lecturer on Business Ethics at Bentley College. Ms. Gorelick has been a member of the Best Lawyers Board of Advisors and the Reuters Editorial Advisory Board.

District of Columbia New York US Supreme Court

JD, Harvard Law School, 1975

BA, Harvard University, 1972