J. Michael Luttig - Education and Early Work

Education and Early Work

Born in Tyler, Texas, Luttig graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1976. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 1981. He served briefly in the Reagan administration, where his duties included reviewing potential judicial appointments and vetting them for ideological consistency with the administration's policies. From 1982 to 1984 he clerked for then-Judge Antonin Scalia of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, one of the potential judges he had vetted in his prior job, and for Chief Justice Warren Burger. Luttig later served as co-executor of Burger's one-page will that gained notoriety for Burger's failure to dictate how estate taxes should be paid. Luttig continued to work for Burger as a special assistant until 1985, when he entered private practice at the Washington office of Davis Polk & Wardwell. In 1989, Luttig returned to government service, holding various positions within the Department of Justice until 1991 under George H. W. Bush. His duties in the Justice Department included assisting Supreme Court nominees David Souter and Clarence Thomas with their Senate confirmation proceedings. His assistance of Thomas proved somewhat controversial because he assisted Thomas in his highly contested hearing after his own appointment to the federal bench had been approved by the Senate, although he did not take office as a judge until after the Thomas hearings had concluded.