JURIST - Paper Chase: Obama to appoint Harvard law professor to oversee government regulations

[JURIST] US President-elect Barack Obama [transition website] will appoint Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein [professional profile] as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs [official website], according to reports Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post [texts]. Sunstein will be responsible for governmental regulations [HLS press release] and will deal with issues including changes to the financial services industry, the development of universal healthcare, and efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions. Sunstein previously taught at the University of Chicago Law School and served as a clerk for US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

On Monday, Obama named four former Clinton-era attorneys to high-level posts [press release; JURIST report] within the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website], including Dean of Harvard Law School Elena Kagan [professional profile; HLS press release] as Solicitor General. Last month, Obama officially announced that he was nominating former DOJ official Eric Holder [professional profile; JURIST report] as the next US attorney general. If confirmed by the Senate, Holder will be the first African American to lead the DOJ. Holder served as Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton Administration and led Obama’s VP selection team during the election. Holder's confirmation hearings [JURIST report] are scheduled to begin next week.

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