Ryan Y. Park

Ryan Young Park (born 1983) is an American lawyer who has served as the solicitor general of North Carolina since 2022. He is a nominee to serve as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Park represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina (formerly merged with Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College).

Early life and education
The son of Korean immigrants, Park grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Arts at Amherst College in 2005. From 2006 to 2007, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English at a boys' school in South Korea. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2010 with a Juris Doctor, summa cum laude.

Career
After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk for Judges Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2010 to 2011 and for Robert Katzmann of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2011 to 2012. From 2013 to 2014, he clerked for Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Park served as a legal counsel for the Legal Adviser of the Department of State from 2012 to 2013. From 2014 to 2017, he was an associate at the Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. He served a deputy solicitor general of North Carolina from 2017 to 2020. On March 31, 2022, he became the solicitor general.

Park is a lecturer at Duke University and the University of North Carolina School of Law. He has written for publications such as The Atlantic, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Nomination to court of appeals
On July 3, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Park to serve as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd objected to his nomination in a joint statement. On July 8, 2024, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Park to the seat being vacated by Judge James Andrew Wynn, who announced his intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor. His nomination is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed, Park would be the first Asian American to serve on the Fourth Circuit.

Personal life
Park is married to Eunee Kathleen, whom he met while they were both undergraduates at Amherst College.