Meet Dana Remus, who’s helping shepherd the Supreme Court nomination

On Feb 18, 2022

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White House counsel Dana Remus (left) and Deputy Chief of Staff Jennifer O’Malley Dillon depart the White House on July 13, 2021. Remus is the “quarterback” of the effort to nominate a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White House counsel Dana Remus is working around the clock to help President Biden make history — logging hours on the phones, meeting with Republicans and supervising background checks so he can fulfill his promise to nominate a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

In the words of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Remus is “the quarterback of this whole process.”

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But, unlike a star football player, Remus prefers to operate behind the scenes, whether she’s shepherding a Supreme Court nomination or carrying out any other of her many duties as the White House’s top lawyer.

A former law professor and ethics expert, Remus has racked up all sorts of elite credentials: graduating from Harvard and Yale Law School, clerking for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, serving in the Obama White House. Diverging from some of her D.C. contemporaries, she simply doesn’t broadcast them. In keeping with that understated approach to life and the law, she declined an interview request.

Remus breaks the mold in other ways, too. Democratic presidents tend to choose judges or luminaries close to retirement to serve as their top attorney in the White House. Remus, though, is 47, with a toddler son at home.

Still, those who work close to her say Remus is the right person for this moment. This month, she and her team are driving the effort to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer and add the first Black woman to serve on the high court.