After a months long confirmation process, the U.S. Senate confirmed Morrison & Foerster partner Tony West today to be Civil Division chief at the Justice Department. The San Francisco lawyer (pictured at right) passed by a vote of 83-4, with 13 not voting. Those opposing West were Republican Senators Jim Bunning of Kentucky, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both of Georgia, and Richard Shelby of Alabama. A Judiciary Committee spokeswoman said she had not heard those four Senators explain their no votes on the floor.
Turns out West will have a little San Francisco company at the Justice Department. Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass partner Marisa Chun (pictured at left) has accepted a job as deputy associate attorney general, reporting to the No. 3 in the department, Thomas Perrilli. While she won’t have direct line authority, like West, Chun will be in charge of coordinating [corrected]
civil and antitrust, budget and transparency matters for her boss. So she and West will probably be seeing a lot of each other.
Chun, a civil litigator, had previously worked for the Justice Department and, like West, was heavily involved in Obama’s California campaign. Both Chun and Obama worked on the Harvard Law review at the same time.
— Dan Levine
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