This is a partial list of individuals who have attended Columbia Law School. For a list of individuals who have attended or taught at Columbia University, see the list of Columbia University people.
Government
United States government
Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt (attended, fall 1904 to spring 1907)² (posthumous J.D., class of 1907), 32nd president of the United States (1933–45) Theodore Roosevelt (attended, 1880–81)² (posthumous J.D., class of 1882), 26th president of the United States (1901–09), hero of the Spanish–American War (Medal of Honor, posthumously awarded 2001), Nobel Peace Prize (1906)
Cabinet members and cabinet-level officers Frank Blake (1976), deputy United States secretary of energy (2nd ranking official in the United States Department of Energy) Antony John 'Tony' Blinken (1988), United States Secretary of State in Biden Administration (2021–25), National Security Advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden in the administration of President Barack Obama (2009–17) J. Reuben Clark (1906), U.S. under secretary of state for President Calvin Coolidge (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of State from 1919 to 1972) Bainbridge Colby (1891), United States secretary of state (1920–21); founder of the Progressive Party (1912) Jacob M. Dickinson (attended), 44th United States secretary of war (1909–11) James Rudolph Garfield (1888), United States secretary of the interior (1907–09), United States Civil Service Commission (1902–03) Eric Hargan, acting deputy secretary, United States Department of Health and Human Services (2nd ranking official in the department) under President Donald Trump Eric Holder (1976), 82nd United States attorney general, former acting U.S. attorney general, former U.S. deputy attorney general Charles Evans Hughes (1884), United States secretary of state, professor of law at Cornell Law School, governor of New York (1907), associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1910–16), Republican nominee for president of the United States (1916-against Woodrow Wilson), and chief justice of the Supreme Court (1930–41) Harold M. Ickes, deputy chief of staff in the Clinton administration John Jay,¹ acting United States secretary of state (1789–90); sixth president of the Continental Congress (1778–79); second U.S. secretary of Foreign Affairs (1784–89); acting U.S. secretary of Foreign Affairs (1789); co-author of The Federalist Papers Jeh Johnson, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security (2013–) Franklin MacVeagh (1864), U.S. secretary of the treasury (1909–13) Joseph McKenna, 42nd attorney general of the United States (1897–98) (studied at Columbia Law while AG, before taking seat on U.S. Supreme Court) Frank Polk (1897), acting United States secretary of state (1920), under secretary of state (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of State) (1919–20) George Lockhart Rives (B.A. 1868, LL.B.1873), U.S. assistant secretary of state (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of State from 1853 until 1913) (1887–89) Oscar S. Straus (1873), U.S. secretary of Commerce and Labor (1906–09), first Jewish presidential cabinet secretary John J. Sullivan (J.D. 1985), U.S. deputy secretary of commerce (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of Commerce) (2008–09) under George W. Bush Russell E. Train (1948), 2nd administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (cabinet level officer) (1973–77); chairman, newly formed president's Council on Environmental Quality (1970–73); 1991 Presidential Medal of Freedom Harold R. Tyler, Jr. (1949), United States deputy attorney general (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice) (1975–77) J. Mayhew Wainwright (1886), U.S. assistant secretary of war (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of War until 1940) (1921–23) Lawrence Edward Walsh (1935), United States deputy attorney general (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice) (1957–60)
Directors of the CIA William Colby (1947), Medal of Honor; 10th U.S. director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford (1973–76) William Joseph Donovan (Law 1908), known as "father" of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); founder and first director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (formed during World War II, the predecessor of the CIA); U.S. coordinator of Information (COI) under Franklin D. Roosevelt; also World War I hero, Medal of Honor; 1959 Freedom Award
White House Counsel Lanny A. Breuer (B.A. 1980, J.D. 1985), special White House counsel (1997–99) under Clinton; helped represent President Clinton during independent counsel and congressional investigations and the impeachment hearings; Covington & Burling vice chair; former assistant Manhattan D.A. (1985–1989); U.S. assistant A.G. for the Criminal Division (2009–2013) under ObamaJesse Eisinger (May 4, 2014), "Why Only One Top Banker Went to Jail for the Financial Crisis", The New York Times Magazine: "["Rodge"] Cohen told Breuеr that while the Justice Department can't have a rule not to indict a large bank, prosecutors should, well, take into account how the target has cooperated and what changes it has made to fix the problems. Of course, HSBC happened to have taken those very measures. The Justice Department blinked again. . . . No one went to jail." Trevor Morrison (1998), associate White House counsel to President Barack Obama (2009–10), professor of constitutional law at Columbia Law School Benjamin Powell (1996), associate White House counsel and special assistant to the president during administration of George W. Bush; general counsel, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (general counsel to the first three directors of National Intelligence) (2006–09)Benjamin Powell, Findlaw.com. Retrieved July 3, 2012.NOMINATION OF BENJAMIN A. POWELL TO BE GENERAL COUNSEL OF THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, FAS.org, Congressional Hearings, 2005. Retrieved July 3, 2012. David B. Rivkin (J.D.), legal advisor to White House counsel of then President Reagan; deputy director of the Office of Policy Development (OPD) Samuel Irving Rosenman (1919), first White House counsel (1943–46) under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman Charles Ruff (1963), White House counsel under President Bill Clinton, defended President during impeachment trial in 1999 Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (1983), deputy White House counsel under President Barack Obama
Solicitor General Lloyd Wheaton Bowers, United States solicitor general (1909–10) Charles Fried (1960), U.S. solicitor general (1985–89), acting United States solicitor general, deputy United States solicitor general Daniel M. Friedman (1940), acting U.S. solicitor general (1977); first deputy solicitor general R. Kent Greenawalt (1963), deputy U.S. solicitor general (1971–72) Stanley Foreman Reed, U.S. solicitor general (1935–38) Donald Verrilli Jr. (1983), U.S. solicitor general (2011–); White House deputy counsel to the president (2010–11)
Presidential advisors Mark Barnes (LL.M. 1991), member, National Health Care Reform Task Force in the administration of President Bill Clinton John D. Clark (1907), member of President's Council of Economic Advisors (1946–53) under President Harry S Truman Jonathan W. Daniels (failed out of the Law School), White House press secretary under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman Stephen Friedman (1962), director, president's United States National Economic Council under George W. Bush (2002–05), chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2005–09) (replacing Brent Scowcroft) Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., personal secretary to President Ulysses S. Grant John Marshall Kernochan, member of President John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women, which helped lead to women's rights legislation in the late 1960s Ken Khachigian (J.D 1969), speechwriter for President Richard Nixon, chief speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan Jay Lefkowitz (1987), deputy assistant to President George W. Bush for Domestic Policy Kathleen McGinty (J.D.), chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (1995–98) Brett H. McGurk (1999), United States National Security Council under President George W. Bush; special adviser-Iraq (2009–); private militias in Iraq S. Jay Plager (LL.M. 1961), associate director, United States Office of Management and Budget (1987–88) Lynn Forester de Rothschild, U.S. secretary of energy Advisory Board under President Bill Clinton Richard Stone, vice chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Commission for Radio Broadcasting to Cuba
Commissioners and agency heads, subcabinet members Carol A. DiBattiste (LL.M. 1986), former U.S. under secretary of the Air Force (2nd highest civilian official in the U.S. Department of the Air Force) (1999–2001) Nathan Feinsinger (Law, post-graduate study), chairman, U.S. Wage Stabilization Board, named to the board in 1951 by President Harry S. Truman William Dudley Foulke (1871), commissioner, United States Civil Service Commission, which subsequently became the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with some functions spun off to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Harvey Goldschmid (1965), commissioner (2002–05), and previously general counsel, special adviser to the chairman, United States Securities and Exchange Commission Henry Clay Hall (1883), twice chairman (1917–18, 1924), commissioner (1914–28), Interstate Commerce Commission John D. Hawke, Jr. (1960), U.S. comptroller of the Currency (1998–2004) under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush; director of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, among other agencies (1998–2004); under secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance (1995–98) Edward Hidalgo (1936), secretary of the Navy (1979–81); assistant secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) (1977–79) William Kovacic (1978), chairman (2008–09), commissioner (2006–09), Federal Trade Commission Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby (1975), chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney (2001–05); convicted on obstruction of justice charges for his role in Plame affair (2007); novelist Charles E. F. Millard, director, United States Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (2007–09) Annette Nazareth, commissioner, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (2005–08) Robert Pitofsky, chairman (1995–2001), commissioner (1978–81), Federal Trade Commission Tracy Voorhees (1915), under secretary of the United States Army (2nd ranking official in the U.S. Army) (1949–50) Mary Jo White (1974), chairman (2013–), commissioner (2013–), United States Securities and Exchange Commission Mozelle W. Thompson, commissioner (1997-2004), United States Federal Trade Commission, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (1993-1997)
U.S. Supreme Court Samuel Blatchford (1837)¹, associate justice of the Supreme Court (1882–93) Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (B.A.-CC, attended Law School for two years), associate justice of the Supreme Court (1932–38); judge, New York Court of Appeals (1914–32) William O. Douglas (1925), associate justice of the Supreme Court (1939–75); professor at Columbia Law and Yale Law School (1928–34), chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1936–39) Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1959), associate justice of the Supreme Court (1993–2020); professor at Rutgers Law (1963–72) and Columbia Law (1972–80); ACLU attorney (1972–80); judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1980–93) Charles Evans Hughes (1884), chief justice of the United States (1930–41); associate justice of the Supreme Court (1910–16); secretary of state (1921–29); governor of New York (1907); Republican nominee for president of the United States (1916) John Jay (1764)¹, first chief justice of the United States (1789–95)