Helaine Greenfeld

A graduate of Yale College and the Georgetown University Law Center, Helaine Greenfeld spent her legal career at the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate Judiciary Committee working on a wide range of issues and specializing in the nomination and confirmation of Article III Judges and Executive Branch nominees.

After a clerkship in the Central District of California, Greenfeld spent eight years at the Department of Justice (1993-2001), spending four years in the Civil Right Division as an assistant to Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick, and four years in the Office of Policy Development (now the Office of Legal Policy), leaving as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. From 2001-2006, she served as Chief Nominations Counsel to Senator Patrick Leahy, both while he was Chair and Ranking Member. She handled scores of nominations, including the Roberts and Alito confirmation processes.

She returned to the DOJ from 2009 until 2013, serving as a Deputy Associate Attorney General under Associate AG Tom Perrelli and as Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder. In 2017, Greenfeld became Chief Counsel to Senator Mazie Hirono, who served on the Judiciary Committee, handling all of the issues in the Committee’s jurisdiction, including the Kavanaugh nomination. In 2021, Greenfeld served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs in the Biden DOJ.