Claire McCusker Murray
Class of 2000
Claire McCusker Murray is a litigation partner
in the Washington, D.C. office of the global law
firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where her practice
focuses on appellate litigation and white-collar
defense. Before entering private practice, Ms.
Murray served as a federal prosecutor with the
U.S. Department of Justice through its Honors
Program.
During her tenure at the Justice Department,
Ms. Murray successfully briefed and argued
cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals and
obtained convictions in both bench and jury
trials. Ms. Murray also served as a law clerk to
Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Supreme
Court of the United States and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In between clerkships, she was awarded a Temple
Bar Scholarship by the American Inns of Court to study the British legal system.
Ms. Murray received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Coker
Fellow and an Articles Editor on the Yale Law Journal. She earned her A.B. in
government, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard University, where
she received the Augustus Clifford Tower Fellowship. She also holds a diplôme
d’études approfondies in political philosophy
from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales and an M.Phil. in Classics from the
University of Cambridge, both with highest
distinction.
Valedictorian of the Mountain Lakes High
School Class of 2000, Ms. Murray was also the
Editor-in-the-Chief of the Mountaineer,
President of the Key Club, and Captain of the
Softball and Mock Trial teams. After her time
at MLHS, then-President Clinton named Ms.
Murray a United States Presidential Scholar.
Ms. Murray lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
She and her husband, Michael, have three
small children.