The Hon. Elizabeth Prelogar

Elizabeth B. Prelogar is the 48th Solicitor General of the United States and has been serving in that role since October 2021.  As Solicitor General, she is responsible for conducting and supervising all Supreme Court litigation on behalf of the United States and she has argued cases in a variety of areas, including constitutional law, administrative law, environmental regulation, and antitrust.  The Solicitor General also determines whether appeals will be taken by the federal government to all appellate courts and whether the federal government will file an amicus curiae brief or intervene in any appellate court.  The Solicitor General additionally assists the Attorney General in the development of broad Department program policy.

Ms. Prelogar previously served in multiple roles at the Department of Justice.  Before her confirmation as Solicitor General, she served as Acting Solicitor General and Principal Deputy Solicitor General for nearly seven months.  She also served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General from 2014 to 2019.  In that capacity, she briefed and argued multiple cases in the Supreme Court and helped formulate the government’s appellate strategy in lower courts.  During her prior tenure as a career attorney at the Department, she also was detailed to Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and obstruction-of-justice issues, where she served as an Assistant Special Counsel.

Before rejoining the Department of Justice in 2021, Ms. Prelogar was a partner at Cooley LLP, where she focused on Supreme Court and appellate litigation.  She also previously worked as an associate in the appellate group at Hogan Lovells LLP.  She devoted substantial time to pro bono litigation while in private practice and also served as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where she co-taught a course on Supreme Court and appellate advocacy.

Before entering private practice, Ms. Prelogar clerked for Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  She then completed consecutive Supreme Court clerkships for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan.  Ms. Prelogar graduated from Harvard Law School, where she was an Articles Editor on the Harvard Law Review.  She previously completed a master's degree in creative writing at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, earned her undergraduate degree in English and Russian from Emory University, and was a Fulbright Fellow in St. Petersburg, Russia.