At the end of last week, state Attorney General Ashley Moody announced the appointment of Henry Whitaker to the position of Florida Solicitor General.

The Solicitor General represents the Attorney General’s Office in cases before the United States Supreme Court, the Florida Supreme Court and legally advises on appellate cases in state and federal courts.

Whitaker served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and before that as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, for the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice where he advised the White House Counsel and cabinet secretaries on a range of important constitutional and statutory questions. Prior to that, Whitaker worked on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the DOJ and, in that capacity, argued more than 40 appeals in the federal courts. He graduated magna cum laude from both Yale College and Harvard Law School. After law school, Whitaker clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“I am honored to appoint Henry Whitaker as Solicitor General of the state of Florida. He has spent many years advising the federal government on its most critical legal issues and litigating some of its most important cases. I look forward to working with him as we fight to protect the interests of Florida and its citizens in our nation’s courts,” Moody said on Friday,

“I look forward to serving as Florida’s Solicitor General and am grateful to Attorney General Moody for entrusting me to serve in this important role. The Attorney General has built an impressive and talented team of attorneys in her office, and I am excited to work with them to defend Florida’s interests in the courts,” said Whitaker.

The position of Florida Solicitor General was first established in 1999.