Senate Confirms Alumnus Jeh C. Johnson '82 as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
New York, December 17, 2013—Columbia Law School alumnus Jeh C. Johnson ’82 has been confirmed to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. President Obama announced Johnson’s nomination in October. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Monday with a vote of 78-16.
Johnson served as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense until the end of 2012, overseeing the legal work of more than 10,000 lawyers in the country's oldest and largest government agency.
After leaving the department, Johnson returned to the Washington, D.C. office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner specializing in litigation, white-collar crime and regulatory defense, internal investigations, securities litigation, and professional liability.
Johnson served as general counsel of the Department of the Air Force in 1998. His career as a trial attorney began when he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In 2012, Johnson was awarded the Columbia Law School Medal for Excellence, and in 2009, he received the Law School’s Lawrence A. Wien Prize for Social Responsibility. Johnson served as a lecturer in trial practice from 1995 to 1997.