Every Day, DOJ Lawyer Deals with ‘Two or Three Cases of a Lifetime’
Former Jenner & Block partner Ian Gershengorn oversees a challenging assignment as director of the Justice Department’s Federal Programs Branch.
“Every day,” Gershengorn told the New York Times, “I deal with two or three cases of a lifetime.”
Gershengorn’s office represents the federal government in constitutional challenges, the Times explains. Its cases include challenges to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, the government’s handling of Guantanamo Bay detainees, and the rules for embryonic stem cell research. Gershengorn is personally defending the new health care bill in nearly two dozen cases.
So far the government has won two federal court rulings on the merits, but that could change when U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson of Richmond, Va., issues a decision, expected shortly. In July, the judge refused to dismiss the case.
The story describes Gershengorn as “6-foot-2 and as lanky as Jimmy Stewart.” When he prepares for oral arguments in big cases, the Times says, Gershengorn walks long laps around the building, “mumbling to himself while hunched over note cards. People try not to stare.”
Gershengorn told the Times a big case “puts the fear of God in you a little bit.”
“I start to get the feeling in the pit of my stomach,” he said. “I start to pace around the building a little more, and become more irritable.”
