Jeff Blattner's Bio

From 1998 through January 2001, Jeff was deputy assistant attorney general and special counsel for information technology in the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, where he supervised the United States v. Microsoft Corp. litigation for then-Assistant Attorney General Joel I. Klein, and worked on a number of other matters involving antitrust, technology and intellectual property. Klein told The New York Times that "Jeff's extraordinary legal skill, strategic acumen and sound judgment made him an invaluable adviser." Former acting solicitor general Walter Dellinger described Mr. Blattner in The National Law Journal as “a truly talented strategic thinker.”

From 1987 through 1995, Jeff was on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff of Senator Edward Kennedy, serving as Senator Kennedy's chief counsel from 1992-95. He advised the senator on a broad range of issues, including antitrust, copyright, technology, constitutional law, civil rights, judicial nominations, and the administration of justice. He was Kennedy's lead staffer on numerous bills, and played a key role in the enactment of two major civil rights laws, the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991. When the Civil Rights Act was enacted, Senator Kennedy said on the Senate floor, “Jeff Blattner’s outstanding work is well known to many of us on the Judiciary Committee. Throughout the past two years leading to this successful vote . . ., he mastered all of the complex details of this legislation. In doing so, he never lost sight of the fundamental goals we [were] trying to achieve, and the Nation is in his debt.” The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law gave Jeff its special recognition award for "extraordinary diligence and commitment to securing passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991." He was a guest speaker at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Jeff is an adjunct instructor at the University of Colorado Law School, and a senior fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Institute Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship of the University of Colorado. He previously served as an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law at American University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of HIAS, and previously served on the Boards of Directors of The Opportunity Agenda and the Environmental Working Group.

Jeff worked on the Presidential Transitions of Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. He has given presentations, speeches and lectures before numerous organizations, including the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Silicon Flatirons Conference at the University of Colorado, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the Computer Electronics Association. He appeared on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "Good Morning America," and "Burden of Proof" to discuss the Microsoft case.

Jeff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude, in 1975, and from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, in 1980. After graduation from law school, he was a law clerk for the Honorable Robert E. Keeton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (1980-81) and for Associate Justice Potter Stewart (retired) of the U.S. Supreme Court (1982-83).