A longtime lawyer for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is taking a job vetting judicial nominees at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michael Zubrensky has been on Durbin's staff for seven and a half years, serving most recently as the senator's senior counsel for issues before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Zubrensky’s responsibilities extended to judicial nominations, including four successful nominees for the Supreme Court and hundreds of others for lower courts, Durbin said today. At a committee meeting during which Durbin announced the jump, committee lawyers gave Zubrensky an ovation.
Zubrensky previously worked at the Justice Department, starting through the DOJ honors program and rising to become counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights. He has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from Stanford.
His new job will be deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy, which, among other things, reviews candidates for judicial vacancies. He’ll succeed Jonathan Meyer as the department’s top, full-time official for judicial nominees. Meyer is staying in the office, moving into a policy role.
Durbin did not announce a successor for Zubrensky on his staff.
Abner Mikva, former White House counsel and former chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, officiated at Zubrensky’s wedding in 2004, according to an announcement at the time in The New York Times.
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