Today the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law announced that Kimberley D. Harris and Christine A. Varney have been elected Co-Chairs of the Center’s Board of Directors.
Kimberley D. Harris is Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation and General Counsel of NBCUniversal. In this role, Harris oversees all international government and regulatory affairs for Comcast, supporting the company’s businesses worldwide. As General Counsel of NBCUniversal, Harris provides legal advice to the senior management team and oversees the legal function across all NBCUniversal divisions. Harris joined NBCUniversal in 2013 from Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she was a partner in the litigation department and from 2010 to 2012, she served in the White House Counsel’s Office and became the principal Deputy Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President in 2011, and previously served as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Harris graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and holds a law degree from Yale Law School. She received the Brennan Legacy Award in 2015.
Christine A. Varney is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore where she chairs the firm’s antitrust practice. She is widely recognized as one of the leading antitrust lawyers in the United States in both private practice and government service. She is the only person to have served as both the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust in the Obama Administration and as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the Clinton Administration. Varney formulates global antitrust strategy for clients in connection with joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and other business transactions, including advising on business conduct or potential investments to ensure compliance with antitrust laws, securing antitrust regulatory approvals, and handling internal or governmental investigations into anticompetitive behavior. Varney served as Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Cabinet in the Clinton Administration and was General Counsel to the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. She received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany, an M.P.A. from Syracuse University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center, said: “We are extraordinarily excited to welcome Kim and Christine as the new Co-Chairs of the Brennan Center. They are national leaders in the law, business, and government, and will help strengthen our organization at a critical moment, amid new challenges to our values and our democracy. Kim and Christine are passionate voices for justice, equality, the Constitution, and the rule of law. They have generously served the Center in various roles throughout the years. We are so excited to work with them, to learn from them, and to gain from their experience.”
The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to strengthen the systems of democracy and justice. It honors the legacy of the late Supreme Court justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Harris and Varney succeed Robert Atkins and Patricia Bauman, longtime cochairs of the Center’s board.
