Brett McGurk
Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan, National Security Council

Brett H. McGurk serves as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan, Strategic Planning and Policy Development. In his current role, Mr. McGurk is responsible for developing and overseeing the effective implementation of U.S. strategy in these two vital fronts of the Global War on Terrorism.

Mr. McGurk formerly served as Director for Iraq on the National Security Council, where he handled a broad policy portfolio and participated in the President's comprehensive strategic review in 2006, which led to the President's address to the nation on January 10, 2007, and the new strategy for Iraq now known as the surge.

Prior to working at the National Security Council, Mr. McGurk served in Baghdad, where he helped structure the legal framework for nationwide elections and participated in the negotiation of Iraq's interim constitution, serving first as Associate General Counsel to the Coalition Provisional Authority and then as a legal Advisor to the U.S. Embassy.

Mr. McGurk earlier practiced appellate litigation at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and was an adjunct professor of law at the University of Virginia, teaching a course on the international law of post-conflict transitions.

He is a former Supreme Court law clerk, serving with the late Chief Justice Rehnquist on the Supreme Court's 2001-2002 Term. He also served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with Judge Dennis Jacobs, and on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York with Judge Gerard E. Lynch.