Ed Siskel, an experienced litigator, crisis manager, and strategic advisor, combines experience at the highest levels of government and the private sector to help clients navigate high-stakes legal, policy, reputational, and business challenges.
Combining his experience at the White House, Justice Department, private practice, and in-house at a global alternative asset manager, Ed skillfully counsels clients through:
Before joining Latham, Ed served as White House Counsel for President Biden, and Deputy White House Counsel for President Obama. In those roles, Ed advised the President and senior White House staff on a broad range of legal, policy, and compliance matters — including issues of executive authority, national security, domestic policy, and judicial nominations. Leading a team of White House lawyers and working closely with counsel across Executive Branch agencies, he managed the Biden and Obama Administrations’ responses to Congressional and other high-profile investigations, complex litigation, and policy matters.
Ed also draws on extensive experience in the private sector as in-house counsel, having served as chief legal officer at Chicago-based alternative asset management firm, Grosvenor Holdings LLC. He also leverages experience at another global law firm where he advised corporate clients on litigation, crisis management, and government investigations.
Ed’s Chicago roots include serving as Corporation Counsel — the city’s chief legal officer — during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration. In that role, Ed advised Mayor Emanuel and city leadership on all legal issues as well as overseeing a department of 300 attorneys and staff, managing high-profile litigation, regulatory, and transactional matters for Chicago.
Ed’s public service includes high level roles in the Department of Justice, including serving for two years as Associate Deputy Attorney General during the Obama Administration, working on significant DOJ investigations and policy matters across all U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the Criminal Division, law enforcement agencies, and the criminal components of the department’s litigating divisions. Prior to his service with the DOJ, Ed served as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where he: conducted eight jury trials to verdict, including a four-month long corporate and securities fraud case; argued several appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; and supervised numerous fraud and public corruption investigations and indictments.
Earlier in his career, Ed was a law clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court, and for Judge Dorothy Nelson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.