WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Senate on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Rachel Brand as associate attorney general, the third-highest position at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
At age 44, Brand has had a diverse career in and out of government. A 1998 graduate of Harvard Law School and a respected member of the Federalist Society, Brand clerked for Justice Charles Fried on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, then for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.
During the administration of President George W. Bush’s administration, Brand served as the assistant attorney general leading DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy (OLP), which does most of the vetting for potential judicial nominees to the federal bench. She later also accepted an appointment from President Barack Obama to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
Brand has also worked in the private sector, prominently as an attorney at the conservative gold-standard law firm currently named Cooper & Kirk, led by iconic Reagan administration lawyer Charles Cooper, the firm at which GOP darlings Sen. Ted Cruz and solicitor general nominee Noel Francisco also earned their spurs. She also formerly worked as top attorney for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
More recently, Brand taught law as a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
The associate attorney general supervises numerous parts of DOJ, including the Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, Anti-Trust Division, and Tax Division. That DOJ official is also the acting attorney general on any matter in which Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are both recused or unavailable.
The Senate confirmed Brand by a vote of 52-46.
Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.
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