Philip Perry

Philip Jonathan Perry (born October 16, 1964) is an American attorney and was a political appointee in the administration of George W. Bush. He was acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice (the third ranked Department official, responsible for overseeing the Department's five civil litigating divisions), general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. (Perry was confirmed by the U.S. Senate unanimously for that position.) He is a partner at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., and has served as lead counsel on many matters of national importance. He has handled matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and U.S. District Courts across the country. He is known both for his work litigating biotechnology issues and his work on constitutional and federal regulatory matters. Perry was named a "Litigation Trailblazer" by The National Law Journal in 2018 for his "remarkable successes" in litigation, and has seen continued successes in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, winning cases in both federal appellate and trial courts. He also has substantial experience with Congressional investigations: he served as Senate Counsel to the Thompson Committee in 1997, and has also dealt with such investigations during his time in the Executive Branch and private practice. He is the husband of former Representative Liz Cheney and the son-in-law of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Early life and education
Perry was born in San Diego County, California. He grew up in Orinda, a San Francisco Bay Area suburb and was a 1982 graduate of Miramonte High School, He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Colorado College in 1986. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School in 1990.

Counsel to United States Senate/campaign finance abuse
In 1997–98, Perry was counsel to the United States Senate hearings on campaign finance abuses in the 1996 presidential campaigns.

2000 presidential transition team
In 2000, he was a policy advisor for the Bush-Cheney presidential transition team and an advisor on the vice presidential debate preparation team. Of Perry, Cheney said, "He was tough...much tougher than I would have been on my father-in-law."

Department of Justice
Perry joined the Department of Justice and served in a number of roles before being named acting associate attorney general (the department's third-ranking official), overseeing DOJ's five civil litigating units: Civil, Tax, Environment and Natural Resources, Antitrust, and Civil Rights.

Office of Management and Budget
In 2002, Perry then moved to the White House to be general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the then-Director Governor Mitch Daniels. In that capacity, Perry supervised the White House's clearance of federal regulations, mediated interagency disputes, addressed matters on the DOJ's civil litigation docket, formulated presidential executive orders, developed White House policy initiatives, and advised the president. Among his tasks as general counsel was drafting the legislation that created the new Department of Homeland Security. Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund called Perry "a first-rate lawyer," "quiet but determined, " and the "unsung hero" of the team of lawyers faced with settling the issue of which family members of September 11 victims would be eligible to receive compensation. Perry suggested that in cases where family wills did not stipulate beneficiaries (80%), the matter should be determined under the inheritance laws of the state in which a victim held residence.

Latham & Watkins
After multiple years of federal service, Perry returned to Latham & Watkins as a partner, where he rejoined their litigation and regulatory groups, serving as counsel on behalf of Fortune 500 clients such as Monsanto, defense contractor Lockheed Martin and others. The Washington Post reported that at Latham & Watkins, Perry was "a leader of its homeland security practice."

Perry's law practice has largely involved federal court litigation. He has served as lead trial counsel in important nationally prominent matters. Although he has handled numerous commercial matters, his most high-profile successes have involved federal constitutional issues, government regulation and federal contracts. Over the past 15 years since returning to private practice at Latham, Perry has won dozens of cases, including on many consequential Constitutional and federal and state regulatory issues.

General counsel for Department of Homeland Security
In April 2005, President George Bush nominated Perry to be the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. Perry was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate later that year. In his position as the general counsel for the DHS, Perry supervised over 1,500 lawyers, and advised Secretary Michael Chertoff and the White House on the department's legal and policy issues. Issues of influence for Perry included, but were not limited to, "the transit of people and cargo, comprehensive immigration reform, and critical infrastructure such as chemical plants." A Cornell Law alumni newsletter reports, "While at DHS, he was joined by Gus P. Coldebella '94, current acting general counsel, and Julie L. Myers '94, assistant secretary of homeland security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

Return to private sector
Perry was also "closely involved" in the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) National Security Agreement process.

Awards and honors
Perry has been recognized as a leading litigator in the Euromoney Institutional Investor Benchmark: Litigation 2008 guide. Additionally, Perry has been recognized on multiple occasions as a BTI Client Service All-Star.

Personal life
Perry is married to Elizabeth Cheney, an alumna of Colorado College. They have five children. Elizabeth Cheney is a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She is the former deputy assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs at the State Department, and was a member of the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming's at-large congressional district. Representative Cheney served as the Vice Chair of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Quotes

 * "The term 'revolving door' implies people going in and out of government in order to obtain monetary gain. The reason people go into government is to serve their country. It's not appropriate to describe that as a 'revolving door.'"