Philip J. Perry > Latham & Watkins LLP > Houston, United States > Lawyer Profile

Philip J. Perry

+1.202.637.2200 [email protected] View profile

Position

Phil Perry’s career has been unique. He has served in private practice as lead trial court and appellate counsel on matters of national importance, but also as the General Counsel for two federal agencies, and in multiple high-ranking positions in the US Department of Justice.

In 2005, Mr. Perry was nominated by the President and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate as General Counsel of the US Department of Homeland Security. In that role, Mr. Perry managed an office of 1,500 lawyers responsible for all components of the department. Prior to his appointment at Homeland, Mr. Perry served as General Counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget, addressing budgetary, regulatory, and policy issues across the Executive Branch. Mr. Perry also previously served as acting Associate Attorney General for the US Department of Justice (the Department’s third-ranking official), overseeing the Department’s Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, Tax, and Antitrust Divisions. Earlier in his career, Mr. Perry served as Counsel to the US Senate’s 1997 Special Investigation of Campaign Finance Abuses.

Mr. Perry has significant experience in federal regulation of biotechnology and has successfully litigated the leading federal cases in that field. He has also successfully litigated high-profile cases involving the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the US Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Interior, and Justice (including the Drug Enforcement Administration). He also frequently handles complex regulatory matters before those agencies. He has successfully sued to invalidate federal and state regulations and agency actions (including in cases in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024), and has also successfully intervened to defend multiple US agencies in challenges critical to his clients’ businesses.

Mr. Perry also advises on federal and state express and implied preemption issues, and has taken a lead role in multiple successful civil litigation matters where such issues were critical. In addition to litigation in federal courts, Mr. Perry has also served as lead counsel in hearings before federal administrative law judges and in federal investigatory matters. Drawing on his prior experience with congressional investigations, Mr. Perry has represented national security clients in multiple congressional hearings and inquiries. Drawing on his experience in government following 9/11, Mr. Perry also handles certain matters of homeland and national security.