Phil Brest

President

Phil Brest will become ACS’s President in January 2026.

Prior to joining ACS, from 2023-2025, Brest served as the White House Senior Counsel who directed the Biden administration’s judicial nominations. In his time in the Office of the White House Counsel, Brest helped lead efforts to confirm 235 Article III judges—the most by any Presidential administration in nearly five decades.

Before joining the Biden White House, he spent six years working for the Senate Judiciary Committee, most recently as Chief Counsel for Nominations and Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill). He led the Senate’s confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and nearly 100 federal judges. He previously served in a variety of roles for the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), including as her Acting Staff Director, where he oversaw the Judiciary Committee’s work on civil rights, intellectual property, national security, and other matters within the Committee’s jurisdiction.

Prior to joining the Judiciary Committee staff, Brest spent several years as an attorney specializing in white collar criminal investigations. Working for two different large law firms, Brest focused on representing clients in cases brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and in various banking, antitrust, accounting, and pharmaceutical investigations. He clerked for Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on the California Supreme Court, where he advised the Justice on civil, criminal, administrative, and constitutional legal matters.

Brest received his A.B. magna cum laude from Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served on the Stanford Law Review.