American lawyer (born 1968)
Adam G. Ciongoli
(born 1968) is a government and private lawyer, and was the Counselor to
United States Attorney General
John Ashcroft
during the
September 11, 2001 attacks
and in the period that followed.
According to an October 2002 profile in
Legal Times
,
[1]
Ciongoli grew up in
Burlington, Vermont
, the son of A. Kenneth Ciongoli, a
neurologist
and chairman of the
National Italian American Foundation
. Ciongoli attended the
University of Pennsylvania
, and graduated from
Georgetown University Law Center
in 1995. He began his legal career as a clerk for then-Judge
Samuel Alito
. on the
United States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit in
Newark, New Jersey
. After his clerkship, Ciongoli went to work for
Kenneth Starr
,
Paul Cappuccio
and other noted Republican lawyers in the
Washington, DC
office of
Kirkland & Ellis
. In 1999, he succeeded his friend and former Kirkland colleague,
Paul Clement
as the chief
counsel
to the United States Senate Constitution Subcommittee, which was chaired by then-Senator John Ashcroft.
After an unusual re-election defeat, Ashcroft was appointed Attorney General by President-elect
George W. Bush
, and took Ciongoli to the
Justice Department
with him. Ciongoli played a prominent role as the Attorney General's legal advisor, including participation in formulating the
Patriot Act
, and drafting the administration's order authorizing military commissions to try suspected terrorists and writing the subsequent regulations. In 2003, the
White House Chief of Staff
,
Andy Card
, named Ciongoli as the administration's chief liaison to the Independent
9/11 Commission
;
[2]
Some Democratic members of the Commission criticized Ciongoli for restricting the Commission's access to key people and documents.
After leaving the Justice Department later that year, Mr. Ciongoli became a senior vice president and general counsel at
Time Warner
Europe.
[3]
When his former boss, Judge Alito was nominated to the
United States Supreme Court
, Ciongoli played an active role in preparing Alito for his confirmation hearings
[4]
and in publicly advocating the nomination.
[
citation needed
]
In a surprising move, Ciongoli then left his lucrative corporate job to become one of the newly confirmed Justice Alito's law clerks.
[5]
Justice Alito officiated Mr. Ciongoli's marriage in June 2006.
[6]
Mr. Ciongoli went on to be general counsel of a number of well-known public companies post-clerkship, including Willis Group Holdings plc (2007-2012). Lincoln Financial Group (2012-2015), and since July 2015 General Counsel of the Campbell Soup Company.
See also
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References
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