Donald Verrilli, the current Solicitor General of the United States, will deliver the Commencement address for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. The law school Commencement service will take place at 10 a.m. May 10 in Carmichael Arena.
UNC School of Law Dean John Charles Boger will preside during the ceremony. Verrilli was chosen by a committee of law students from the graduating class.
Verrilli is a 1979 graduate of Yale College and a 1983 graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review. He clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals and for Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court of the United States. He then spent years as a litigation partner with the firm of Jenner & Block, where he specialized in telecommunications, media law and First Amendment law.
Prior to his government service, Verrilli represented the Recording Industry Association of America before the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster (2005) and represented Viacom in Viacom v. Google (2007). He also argued two pro bono death penalty cases, Wiggins v. Smith (2003) and Montejo v. Louisiana (2009) before being appointed as Solicitor General by President Obama in 2009. Since then, he has briefed and argued, on behalf of the United States, some of the most significant Supreme Court cases of recent years including a largely successful defense of the Affordable Care Act in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), the higher education affirmative action case of Fisher v. University of Texas (2012), and the Voting Rights Act case of Shelby County v. Holder (2013). In all, Verrilli has appeared as counsel in more than 100 Supreme Court cases and has argued at least 36, by recent count.
Learn more about UNC School of Law's 2014 Commencement.
-February 27, 2014