People in the news

Thomas J. Perrelli

Associate Attorney General at the Justice Department (since March 2009)

(Jenner & Block)

Why He Matters

Perrelli has worked under Barack Obama before, when the two of them were running the Harvard Law Review together. Now, Perrelli is back under Obama as the No. 3 person in the Justice Department.

Perrelli is serving his second stint at the DOJ, this time as associate attorney general (ASG). He will advise Attorney General Eric Holder and the deputy attorney general. The ASG supervises Justice's Civil, Civil Rights, Antitrust, Tax and Environment divisions.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Member of Barack Obama's transition team (November 2008 to January 2009); Partner at Jenner & Block LLP (June 2001 to March 2009); Deputy assistant attorney general, civil division (September 1999 to January 2001); Counsel to the attorney general (December 1997 to September 1999)
Birthday: March 12, 1966
Hometown: Falls Church, Va.

Alma Mater: Brown University, A.B., 1988; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1991
Spouse: Kristine Joy Lucius
Web site

Path to Power

Perrelli was born on March 12, 1966, in Falls Church, Va. His father, Thomas N. Perrelli, had moved to the Washington area in 1961 to work for Atlantic Research Corp. as a computer engineer, but in 1972, he began a career in civil service that would span three decades. The older Perrelli started at the Food and Drug Administration and then took a job with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He spent 25 years as comptroller, budget director and eventually director of the office that works with airlines to prevent people from illegally entering the country.

The younger Perrelli was honored in high school as the second-best Latin scholar in the country. He went to Brown University, where he studied history and then to Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he joined Law Review and was managing editor under a law student named Barack Obama. Perrelli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 and clerked for Royce C. Lamberth at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In November 1992, Perrelli joined Jenner & Block LLP in Washington D.C.

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The Issues

Perrelli returned to Jenner & Block in 2001 after his first stint with the Clinton Justice Department looking to start an entertainment law division at the firm. In 2008, Jenner & Block had 25 people focused on copyright law, and Perrelli was named "Top Washington Lawyer" in the field of intellectual property by Washington Business Journal. Perrelli says representing record companies and motion picture studios has been the majority of his work since 2004.

File Sharing

Perrelli has litigated on behalf of many high-profile trade organizations, including the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Broadcasters.

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One of the most significant cases he participated in was MGM Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., a digital file-sharing case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that peer-to-peer file sharing was legal, "a ruling that was devastating to the music and movie industries, among others," Perrelli said. Perrelli worked with a team of lawyers who prepared briefs and argued in front of the Supreme Court on behalf of MGM Studios. The Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the 9th Circuit, contending that peer-to-peer file sharing constitutes copyright infringement, which Perrelli described as "the most significant copyright decision in years."

Terri Schiavo Case

Perrelli also represented Michael Schiavo in the famous end-of-life dispute surrounding his wife, Terri Schiavo, who was in a Florida hospital in a persistent vegetative state.

By the time Perrelli became involved in the case in 2003, the courts had already determined that Michael Schiavo, as Terri's legal guardian, had the right to remove his wife's feeding tube. But the Florida legislature enacted a law giving the governor the opportunity to intervene.

Perrelli worked with the lawyers who handled the first part of the case to get an injunction invalidating the Florida law on the basis that it was unconstitutional, an argument they eventually won. In 2005, Congress passed a statute that allowed Terri Schiavo's parents to take the case to federal court. The team of lawyers "litigated through federal district court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court twice in less than two week." None of the courts overturned the Florida court's ruling (the U.S. Supreme court did not hear the case) and Terri Schiavo eventually died two weeks after her feeding tube was removed for good. "We are gratified that the trial court found that Mrs. Schiavo, and not Governor [Jeb] Bush, has the right to determine her own care and to choose to forego artificial methods to sustain her life," said Perrelli.

Schiavo's end-of-life dispute became a national issue because of the involvement of Congress, which passed the statute and President George W. Bush, who signed it. Groups around the country protested about Schiavo's right to live and her right to die. Perrelli's involvement in the case caused "pro-life" groups to write a letter to Senate leaders in February 2009 opposing his nomination. "Perrelli even worked with pro-euthanasia attorney George Felos on the case, sending a clear message about his own end-of-life views," the letter from 30 pro-life groups said.His work on the Schiavo case slowed his nomination process but ultimately did not derail it.

Justice Department Work

Conservative groups continued to chastize Perrelli after he was confirmed. In July 2009, the Washington Times reported that Perrelli told career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division to drop a civil complaint that accused three members of the new Black Panther Party of intimidating voters in Philadelphia.

"This incident is one of a series of events that suggest the Obama administration has gone to considerable lengths to politicize the Department of Justice," wrote the conservative blog Power Line.

The Network

Perrelli is a part of Obama's Harvard Law School network. He was at Harvard at the same time as Obama and served as managing editor of the Harvard Law Review when Obama was editor. Perrelli was also moot court partners with Cassandra Butts, a close friend of Obama's who is now a deputy White House counsel. Perrelli was in Laurence Tribe's constitutional law class that also included Obama as well as Julius Genachowski and Michael Froman, both members of Obama's transition team. Genachowski is Obama's choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission and Froman is deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

Perrelli worked directly under David Ogden during the Obama transition, and he will continue in that role at the Justice Department. He is married to Kristine Joy Lucius, who is chief counsel for civil justice and deputy staff director on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Campaign Contributions

Perrelli has donated nearly $20,000 since 2002, almost all of which has gone to his longtime friend Barack Obama. Perrelli donated to Obama's 2004 Senate campaign and donated $2,000 to Obama's Hope Fund PAC as early as February 2005.

His wife, Kristine Joy Lucius, also contributed the maximum $4,600 to Obama in 2008 and $1,000 to his 2004 Senate campaign. Perrelli was also one of Obama's biggest bundlers. He raised more than $500,000 for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

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