Obama Appoints Clinton Staffers, Harvard Dean to DoJ

President-elect Barack Obama today named David Ogden, a former assistant attorney general under President Bill Clinton, as his deputy attorney general and Elena Kagan, the dean of Harvard Law School, to serve as solicitor general in the new Department of Justice.

After working at D.C. law firm Jenner and Block from 1988 to 1994, Ogden began his career at Clinton’s Department of Justice as deputy general counsel. He became assistant attorney general for the department’s Civil Division in 1999 and served in that post until 2001.

Kagan has worked as dean of Harvard Law School since 2003. She served in Clinton’s White House from 1995 to 1999, first as associate counsel to the president, then as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy and deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Obama also named Tom Perrelli, a former deputy assistant attorney general under Clinton, as associate attorney general and Dawn Johnsen, a former official in Clinton’s Office of Legal Counsel and a former head of NARAL Pro-Choice America (1988-93), to serve as assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel.