Judge Griffith was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2005. He earned his B.A. summa cum laude from Brigham Young University (1978) and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law (1985) where he was an editor of the law review. Judge Griffith began his legal career in private practice where his primary areas of emphasis were commercial and corporate litigation and government investigations. He was a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wiley, Rein and Fielding. From 1995-99, Judge Griffith was Senate Legal Counsel, the chief legal officer of the United States Senate. In that capacity, he represented the interests of the Senate in litigation and advised the Senate leadership and its committees on investigations, including the impeachment trial of President Clinton. Immediately prior to his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals, Judge Griffith was Assistant to the President and General Counsel of Brigham Young University. His work at BYU focused on preserving the unique role of religiously-affiliated colleges and universities in higher education. Judge Griffith has long been active in rule of law projects in former communist countries. He currently works with the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative in its efforts in Central Europe and Eurasia and is on the board of directors of the CEELI Institute in Prague.