Biography of Alex Michael Azar II
General Counsel
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Alex Azar was nominated by President Bush to serve as General Counsel
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in June
2001. The Senate unanimously confirmed his appointment on August 3,
2001. As HHS General Counsel, Azar serves as chief advisor to
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson on all legal matters concerning the
department. He oversees a staff of 400 attorneys providing legal
services and advice to other officials and agencies throughout HHS.
Prior to joining HHS, Azar was a partner with the firm Wiley, Rein
& Fielding in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in litigation
and appellate practice involving white collar criminal defense and
internal investigations, congressional investigations, government
ethics, administrative law and employment counseling.
Azar also served as an Associate Independent Counsel during the first
two years of the Whitewater investigation under Judge Kenneth Starr.
Prior to that, Azar was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis in
Washington, D.C., where he was involved in litigation and appellate
matters.
Azar is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, where he
was on the Executive Committee of the Yale Law Journal. After law
school, Azar clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Associate Justice Antonin
Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Azar holds bar memberships in the Supreme Court of the United States,
the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the District of Columbia Court of
Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S.
District Court for the District of Maryland, and the U.S. District
Court for the District of Columbia.
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