Printable Version

Rights/Reprints

Assistant Attorney General Tony West will bring in some new faces to Main Justice to help him lead the Civil Division, he said in a statement today.

The recently added members to his team include Ann Ravel, new head of the Torts Branch and the Office of Consumer Litigation, and Juan Osuna to be the Office of Immigration Litigation Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Two of West’s colleagues from his old law firm, Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, have followed him East. They are litigation associates Brian Martinez, West’s chief of staff; and Geoffrey Graber, West’s counsel.

(Santa Clara County Office of the County Counsel)

“We are fortunate to have these talented and committed individuals joining the Justice Department’s Civil Division,” West said in the statement. “I am confident that their service will meet the highest standards of the Division.”

Ravel is counsel for Santa Clara County, Calif., where she met mixed reviews. She had a good track record in Santa Clara County aggressively pursuing civil rights and sexual harassment cases, The San Jose Mercury News reported.

But she hasn’t won everyone over. “Ravel has her detractors, who admire her ambition but say she has valued loyalty over professional competence in some cases,” The Mercury News said.

The Mercury News also pointed out that the 60-year-old Ravel is quite a health nut. She is “an avid runner whose diet is limited to fruit, fish and vegetables,” the newspaper said.

Osuna is the only one of the four that has worked for Main Justice. He was the chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying U.S. immigration laws.

The new additions will join Appellate Branch Deputy Assistant Attorney General Beth Brinkmann, Federal Programs Branch Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ian Gershengorn and Commercial Litigation Branch Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Hertz, who are already in place in the Civil Division.