Roscoe Jones, Jr.

Roscoe Jones, Jr. is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and co-chair of the firm’s Public Policy Group. He is also a core member of the firm’s Congressional Investigations practice group. Recognized in 2022 as one of Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” Mr. Jones has extensive experience representing companies, nonprofits, and individuals in legislative and policy matters before the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch.

Mr. Jones has almost a decade of Capitol Hill experience advising three U.S. Senators and a member of Congress and political experience in the executive branch. Drawing upon that experience, Mr. Jones’s practice focuses on promoting and protecting clients’ interests before the U.S. Congress and the Administration, including providing a range of public policy services to clients such as strategic counseling, advocacy, coalition building, political intelligence gathering, substantive policy expertise, legislative drafting, and message development. He also advises on congressional investigations, internal corporate investigations, and other government investigations, as well as helping clients respond to major crises involving multiple government agencies and branches.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Jones served for almost a decade in senior-level roles on Capitol Hill, most recently as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger, as Legislative Director to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, as Senior Counsel to U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker, and as Counsel, and later Senior Counsel, on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for then-Chairman Patrick Leahy.

During his Capitol Hill tenure, Mr. Jones advised on the confirmations of three Supreme Court Justices and three Attorneys General along with dozens of nominations to federal courts and the Department of Justice, assisted with oversight and investigations of the Department of Justice and White House, and advised on several bills that were enacted into law, including the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which led to the passage of the First Step Act.

Mr. Jones served in several roles at the U.S. Department of Justice. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Washington’s Criminal Division, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, and an attorney in the Appellate Section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division. He served as Special Counsel to then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez, where he helped oversee the Civil Rights Division’s legislative initiatives and directed the Division’s response to congressional investigations.

Mr. Jones is an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Yale Law School.  He has previously taught at the Harvard Kennedy School, University of Michigan Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, George Washington University Law School, University of Washington Law and Evans Schools. He teaches a course on criminal justice reform policy entitled "Mass Incarceration".

Mr. Jones serves on the executive committee for the boards of the American Constitution Society, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute and serves on the boards of the Stanford Athletic Board, Stanford National Black Alumni Association, and President Lincoln's Cottage.  He also sits on the Advisory Council for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Mr. Jones is a fellow at the American Bar Foundation and an elected member of the Council on Foreign Affairs and the American Law Institute.

Mr. Jones graduated with high honors from Stanford University, and received a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Policy & Law and co-founder of the Law School’s Center for Race & Law. Mr. Jones clerked for Judge Carl E. Stewart on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Early in his career, he served as the Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., Appellate Advocacy Fellow at the Public Justice Center. He has been published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review where he co-authored an article on police reform with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).