Jeh Charles Johnson

Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security

Jeh Johnson is the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2013-2017). In public life Johnson has also served as General Counsel of the Department of Defense (2009-2012), General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force (1998-2001), and an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (1989-1991). 

Secretary Johnson is now co-chair of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University, and on the board of directors of MetLife and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  Johnson has previously served on the board of directors of Lockheed Martin, U.S. Steel, PG&E, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center For a New American Security.   He is a regular commentator on NBC’s Meet The Press, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, FOX’s Fox & Friends, CNN, NewsNation and other news networks. 

For much of his career, Johnson was a trial attorney in private practice with the law firm Paul, Weiss.  Johnson retired from the firm in June 2025.  Johnson is also a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. 

As Secretary of Homeland Security, Johnson was the head of the third largest cabinet department of the U.S. government, consisting of 230,000 personnel and 22 components, including TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Services, U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and FEMA. Johnson's responsibilities as Secretary included counterterrorism, cybersecurity, aviation security, border security, port security, maritime security, protection of our national leaders, the detection of chemical, biological and nuclear threats to the homeland, and response to natural disasters.  Johnson is credited with a number of management reforms at DHS, and for raising morale across the department his final year in office.  

As General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Johnson is credited with being the legal architect for the U.S. military’s counterterrorism efforts in the Obama Administration. In 2010, Johnson co-authored the report that paved the way for the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell by Congress later that year.  In his book Duty, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote that Johnson "proved to be the finest lawyer I ever worked with in government - a straightforward, plain-speaking man of great integrity, with common sense to burn and a good sense of humor." 

Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College and Columbia Law School and the recipient of 13 honorary degrees. Johnson has debated numerous times at the Oxford and Cambridge Unions in England, and an honorary life member of the Cambridge Union.  In 2012, while Johnson was General Counsel of DoD he delivered an address at the Oxford Union entitled “The conflict against al Qaeda and its affiliates, how will it end?” The address received widespread press attention.  He has written op-eds in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Lawfare.    

In 2023 the American Bar Association appointed Johnson and former federal appellate Judge J. Michael Luttig to co-chair a task force to promote public confidence in the American democracy.  The task force published its final report and recommendations in September 2025.  In June 2023 the president of the New York State Bar Association appointed Johnson to co-chair a task force to assess the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decisions on affirmative action. In 2020 the Chief Judge of New York State asked Johnson to conduct a comprehensive review of equal justice in the New York State courts, culminating in a public report with a series of recommendations, all of which the Chief Judge pledged to adopt.

Johnson is the 2024 recipient of the Gold Medal, the New York State Bar Association’s highest honor, a 2024 recipient of the National Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award, a 2022 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a 2021 recipient of the American Lawyer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as “an American statesman [who] has devoted his career to the public interest,” and a 2018 recipient of the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Award, presented at the Reagan Presidential Library, for “contribut[ing] greatly to the defense of our nation,” and “guiding us through turbulent times with courage and wisdom.”