Thurgood Marshall Jr.

Thurgood Marshall Jr. (born August 12, 1956) is an American lawyer and son of the late Supreme Court of the United States Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Thurgood Marshall Jr.
Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service
In office November 15, 2011 – September 13, 2018
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Preceded by	Louis J. Giuliano[1]
Succeeded by	Mike Duncan
Member of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service
In office December 15, 2006 – September 13, 2018
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Ned McWherter[2]
Succeeded by	Mike Duncan[3]
White House Cabinet Secretary
In office February 7, 1997 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Kitty Higgins
Succeeded by	Albert Hawkins
Personal details
Born	August 12, 1956 New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Teddi Levy (2008–present)
Children	2
Education	University of Virginia (BA, JD)

Thurgood Marshall Jr. worked in the Clinton White House and is currently a partner at the international law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP.[4] He also served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation. According to documents filed with the SEC, he is a director serving on the board of Corrections Corporation of America,[5] the largest commercial vendor of federal detainment and prisoner transport in the United States.[6] Since 2012, Marshall is also an independent director serving on the board of Genesco Inc., an international footwear and apparel retailer based in Nashville, Tennessee.[7]

Early life

Marshall was born on August 12, 1956, in New York City. He is the son of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and Cecilia Suyat, a Filipino American who was Marshall's second wife after his first wife died of lung cancer.[8] His brother is John W. Marshall, a former Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and former U.S. Marshals Service Director.

He earned a Juris Doctor at the University of Virginia School of Law in 1981 and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 1978. He attended school at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., and the Dalton School in New York City and graduated from The Phillips Exeter Academy.

Of his father's legacy, Marshall has said: "One, he was part of a group of people... who all came together at the right time to steer the country on the right course with regard to equality, especially in education," and "I also like to think of his legacy as one of encouraging lawyers of every color to contribute their skills to society."[9] Marshall's experiences growing up at the Supreme Court were recounted in USA Today in a story about Chief Justice Roberts (June 26, 2006).

Government service

Early in his career, Marshall clerked for United States District Judge Barrington D. Parker and then served as a Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy with the Senate's Judiciary Committee; Counsel to Senator Ernest F. Hollings and Senator Albert Gore Jr. with the Senate's Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee; and Counsel to Senator Albert Gore Jr. with the Senate's Governmental Affairs Committee.

Marshall served as Director of Legislative Affairs and Deputy Counsel to Vice President Al Gore, for whom he had previously worked in the United States Senate and as Deputy Campaign Manager of the Gore For President Campaign in 1988 and as traveling policy advisor on the Clinton-Gore Presidential Campaign.

Marshall worked for the Clinton Administration from 1997 as Assistant to the President and White House Cabinet Secretary. In that role, he managed White House relations with the executive departments; his responsibilities included organizing cabinet meetings and briefings, compiling a daily update of cabinet department activities, and coordinating responses to natural and transportation disasters. As vice-chair of the White House Olympic Task Force, he coordinated federal government's preparations for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. He was also a member of the Interagency Task Force on U.S. Coast Guard Roles and Missions.[10]

President Clinton named Marshall to the Presidential Delegation to the Inauguration of South African President Nelson Mandela in 1994. Marshall also served as a member of the Presidential Election Observer Delegation to Bosnia in 1998. That delegation was led by Ambassador Robert Gelbard. Marshall was a member of the United States Delegation to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Australia.

Private practice

Marshall joined Bingham McCutchen as a partner when it acquired Swidler Berlin, where he had been a partner since 2003. In addition to counseling clients, Marshall provided internal advice to Swidler Berlin on ethics compliance and corporate governance. He became a managing director of Swidler Berlin's Harbour Group in 2005.[11] He became part of Bingham McCutchen's Government Affairs practice, counseling clients on relations with Congress, the Executive Branch and independent regulatory agencies. He has provided legislative and regulatory counsel on corporate mergers, professional and amateur sports, commercial aviation, utilities and banking regulation, and legal process reform.

After his work in the Clinton administration, Marshall joined Swidler Berlin.

Marshall joined Morgan Lewis in 2014 when it acquired a group of lawyers from the now-defunct Bingham McCutchen firm.

Marshall has been named one of Washington's top campaign and election lawyers by Washingtonian Magazine, a leading lawyer in government relations law by The Best Lawyers in America, and included on the Best Lawyers List of the Washington Post Magazine. Newsweek named him one of the 100 people to watch in the new century.

Personal life and civic involvement

Marshall is currently a senior advisor to AllAmerica Political action committee, a political organization set up by Senator Evan Bayh, who briefly sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.[12] Marshall was the Director of Congressional Relations for the Wesley Clark for President Campaign in 2004. He has been involved with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, serving on the board of the Foundation for eight years and promoting environmental science and other science education. He also volunteers at a local food bank and other community service outlets in the Washington, D.C. area.

Marshall is member of the following boards: United States Postal Service Board of Governors, Ford Foundation, Corrections Corporation of America, Genesco, The Third Way, National Women's Law Center, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, and the Supreme Court Historical Society. He has been a member of the Ethics Advisory Committee of the United States Olympic Committee since its inception in 2001 and chairs the Advisory Commission of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Election Law.

He has participated in election and election law observer missions to Bosnia, Chile, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. Marshall is also a veteran of U.S. presidential campaigns, including Gore '88 and Clinton '92 and Clark '04.

Personal life

Marshall and his wife Teddi Levy Marshall (Vice President and Founder of Rolling Greens Inc.) were married on April 25, 2008. They were married at the Supreme Court of the United States and Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer performed the ceremony. The couple lives in the Washington, D.C. area and they have two sons, Thurgood William and Edward Patrick Marshall.

References

1. "Thurgood Marshall, Jr. Elected Chairman of Board of Governors". about.usps.com.
2. "Bush Nominates Thurgood Marshall Jr. to Be Postal Governor". DMNews. September 28, 2006.
3. "Chairman and USPS Board of Governors, Robert M. Duncan". about.usps.com. Retrieved 2018-09-15.
4. "Thurgood Marshall Jr". www.morganlewis.com.
5. "Yahoo Finance - Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News". biz.yahoo.com.
6. "CoreCivic: Better the Public Good". www.corecivic.com.
7. "Genesco Inc Board of Directors". insiders.morningstar.com.
8. "Oral History: Interview of a Filipino American Pioneer in Fairfax County, Mrs. Cecilia "Sissy" Suyat Marshall". Fairfax County Stories. September 26, 2005. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
9. Eurie, Stacy Boulware (May–June 2004). "Thurgood Marshall Jr.: A Call To Citizen Service". Sacramento Lawyer: Sacramento County Bar Association Magazine. 104 (3). Archived from the original on September 28, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
11. "The Harbour Group | Newsroom". September 28, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28.
12. "Hotline On Call: June 2006 Archives". December 9, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-12-09.

External links

• Biography at Morgan Lewis website
• Appearances on C-SPAN