WilmerHale is pleased to announce that David W. Ogden has rejoined the firm as Co-Chair of the Government and Regulatory Litigation Group. His practice will focus on disputes with complex legal and policy dimensions. Through February 5, 2010, Ogden served as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, the second ranking official and chief operating officer of the United States Department of Justice. Before that, Ogden led the Obama Administration’s Justice Department Transition team.
“We are very pleased that David has decided to return to WilmerHale,” said William J. Perlstein, co-managing partner at WilmerHale. “During his time as Deputy Attorney General, he played a significant role in revitalizing the Department and accomplished a great deal while seeking justice for the American people. David is an outstanding lawyer with keen legal judgment. We’re all eager to begin working with him again.”
As Deputy Attorney General, Ogden supervised the Justice Department’s 110,000 employees, almost $30 billion budget, and all of its components and operations. He served as a member of the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council, and led major Justice Department and Executive Branch initiatives addressing health care fraud, financial fraud, international organized crime, international tax enforcement, Mexican drug cartels, immigration, and law enforcement in Indian Country. In February 2010, Ogden was awarded the Justice Department’s prestigious Edward H. Levi Award for Outstanding Professionalism and Exemplary Integrity.
“It was an honor to serve the American people as the Deputy Attorney General,” Ogden said. “I am excited to be rejoining my friends and colleagues at WilmerHale, and I look forward to returning to my law practice.”
A nationally recognized litigator and counselor with almost thirty years’ experience, Ogden was partner at WilmerHale from 2001-2009, specializing in high stakes international legal disputes, major government investigations and litigation, and complex civil matters. Prior to his work at WilmerHale, Ogden served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division (1999-2001), where he directed the Justice Department’s largest litigating unit representing federal agencies and officials in major civil litigation, including the government’s largest regulatory, constitutional, international, national security, administrative, government contract, commercial, tort, fraud and false claims, immigration, and consumer matters. He also served as Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno (1997-1999), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1995-1997), and Deputy General Counsel and Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Defense (1994-1995).
Ogden received his BA summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk to Associate Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun during the Court’s October 1982 Term.