Philip Perry

Perry joined the Department of Justice and served in a number of roles before being named acting associate attorney general (the Department’s third-ranking official), overseeing DOJ's five civil litigating units: Civil, Tax, Environment and Natural Resources, Antitrust, and Civil Rights.

Perry has been recognized as a leading litigator in the Euromoney Institutional Investor Benchmark: Litigation 2008 guide.

In April 2005, President George Bush nominated Perry to be the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. Perry was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate later that year. In his position as the general counsel for the DHS, Perry supervised over 1,500 lawyers, and advised Secretary Michael Chertoff and the White House on the Department's legal and policy issues. Issues of influence for Perry included, but were not limited to, "the transit of people and cargo, comprehensive immigration reform, and critical infrastructure such as chemical plants." A Cornell Law alumni newsletter reports, "While at DHS, he was joined by Gus P. Coldebella '94, current acting general counsel, and Julie L. Myers '94, assistant secretary of homeland security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

In 2002, Perry then moved to the White House to be general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)under the then-Director Governor Mitch Daniels. In that capacity, Perry supervised the White House's clearance of federal regulations, mediated interagency disputes, addressed matters on the DOJ's civil litigation docket, formulated presidential executive orders, developed White House policy initiatives, and advised the president. Among his tasks as general counsel was drafting the legislation that created the new Department of Homeland Security. Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund called Perry "a first-rate lawyer," "quiet but determined, " and the "unsung hero" of the team of lawyers faced with settling the issue of which family members of September 11 victims would be eligible to receive compensation. Perry suggested that in cases where family wills did not stipulate beneficiaries (80%), the matter should be determined under the inheritance laws of the state in which a victim held residence.

In 2000, he was a policy advisor for the Bush-Cheney presidential transition team and an advisor on the Vice Presidential Debate preparation team. Of Perry, Cheney said, "He was tough...much tougher than I would have been on my father-in-law."

In 1997–98, Perry was counsel to the United States Senate hearings on campaign finance abuses in the 1996 presidential campaigns.

Perry was born in San Diego County, California. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Colorado College in 1986. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School in 1990.

Philip Jonathan Perry (born October 16, 1964) is an American attorney and was a political appointee in the administration of George W. Bush. He was acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget, and general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. He is a partner at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. He has handled matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and U.S. District Courts across the country. He is known both for his pioneering work litigating biotechnology issues and his work on constitutional and federal regulatory maters. Perry was named a "Litigation Trailblazer" by the National Law Journal in 2018 for his "remarkable successes" in litigation, and has seen continued success in 2019, winning cases in both federal appellate and trial courts. He is the son-in-law of former Vice President Dick Cheney.