Jeh Johnson is a partner with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP based in New York City, and the former Secretary of Homeland Security. Johnson is also currently on the board of directors of Lockheed Martin and the Center for a New American Security. Johnson is a 2018 recipient of the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Award, to be presented at the Reagan Presidential Library on December 1.
As Secretary of Homeland Security from December 2013 to January 2017, Johnson was the head of the third largest cabinet department of the U.S. government, consisting of 230,000 personnel and 22 components, including TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Services, U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and FEMA. Johnson’s responsibilities as Secretary included counterterrorism, cybersecurity, aviation security, border security, port security, maritime security, protection of our national leaders, the detection of chemical, biological and nuclear threats to the homeland, and response to natural disasters. Johnson is credited with management reform of the Department which brought about a more centralized approach to decision-making in the areas of budgets, acquisition, and overall policy. Johnson also raised employee morale across the Department, reflected in the September 2016 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
Prior to becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, Johnson was General Counsel of the Department of Defense (2009-2012). In that position, Johnson is credited with being the legal architect for the U.S. military’s counterterrorism efforts in the Obama Administration. In 2010, Johnson also co-authored the report that paved the way for the repeal of the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by Congress later that year. In his book former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote that Johnson “proved to be the finest lawyer I ever worked with in government - a straightforward, plain-speaking man of great integrity, with common sense to bum and a good sense of humor."
Earlier in his public service career, Johnson served in the Clinton Administration as General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force (1998-2001), and was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1989-1991), where he tried 12 cases and argued 11 appeals in three years.
Johnson is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and has lectured at the Oxford Union, Westminster College, Harvard and Yale law schools, the National Defense University, the National War College, and all four U.S military academies.
Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College (1979) and Columbia Law School (1982), and the recipient of nine honorary degrees.
