Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler Announces Departure From Justice Department’s Civil Division

WASHINGTON - Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division has announced his resignation, effective September 21, 2007. Mr. Keisler was sworn in as the head of the Civil Division on July 1, 2003. Prior to that, Mr. Keisler served as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General and Acting Associate Attorney General. He joined the Justice Department on June 24, 2002.

Before joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Keisler was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood (formerly Sidley & Austin). He specialized in general and appellate litigation and telecommunications law.

He also served as Associate Counsel to the President during the Reagan Administration, and as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Robert H. Bork of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Mr. Keisler, a native of Woodmere, N.Y., graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 1981. He earned his law degree in 1985 from Yale Law School, where he served on the Yale Law Journal.

Mr. Keisler has been nominated by President Bush for a position as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.