Another high-level matrimonial split has hit the Hillary Clinton campaign, this one involving the parting of top adviser Ann O’Leary and her husband, California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu — who sources have confirmed is now dating his onetime law student, San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim.

O’Leary was recently named co-executive director of the Clinton-Kaine presidential transition team, with speculation that she may be headed for a job in the White House as a deputy chief of staff if Clinton is elected.

A June 2015 profile in Fortune magazine described O’Leary as “a die-hard policy wonk, especially keen on anything that affects families or education.” And until she recently moved East to work out of Clinton’s Brooklyn campaign headquarters, she had been working from her Oakland hills home. The profile had described her as “tag-teaming with her husband ... to raise their two young children.”

In a joint statement to us Tuesday, O’Leary and Liu said, “It is true that we made the difficult decision to separate. We continue to have respect for each other and provide mutual support in our lives. Our priority is, as it has always been, our shared commitment to being the best parents we can be to our children.”

In May, O’Leary texted friends, stating that “Goodwin and I separated because he is in a relationship with Jane Kim.” However, when pressed on the subject Tuesday, O’Leary sent us a separate statement that avoided blaming Kim.

Back to Gallery Clinton adviser, state justice in marital split — enter... 4 1 of 4 Photo: Harry Hamburg, NY Daily News via Getty Images 2 of 4 Photo: Martin H. Simon, ABC via Getty Images 3 of 4 Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images 4 of 4 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle







“As many people around us know, Goodwin and I had a good marriage for many years, but we have struggled in the past few,” she said. “Jane Kim is not the reason my marriage is ending.”

Kim, who is running for the state Senate against fellow Supervisor Scott Wiener, declined to comment.

Kim’s campaign manager, Eric Jaye, also declined to comment, saying, “This is merely prurient interest masquerading as political reporting.”

However, sources close to both Kim and Liu have confirmed that the couple are dating, though nobody is saying exactly when the relationship started. The 39-year-old Kim has known Liu since he was her professor at UC Berkeley School of Law a decade ago.

Liu, 45, has been married for 14 years to O’Leary, who attended Mount Holyoke, got a master’s in education from Stanford in 1997 and graduated from Berkeley Law in 2005 — the same year that Kim enrolled at the school.

Liu emerged on the national scene in 2010 when then-Secretary of State Clinton encouraged President Obama to nominate him to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco — a move eventually blocked by Senate Republicans who considered Liu too liberal and inexperienced for the job.

Unclassified State Department emails that have popped up on WikiLeaks show that O’Leary — who served as Clinton’s legislative director when she was a U.S. senator from New York — had tried to line up support for her husband’s appointment even after the White House had all but given up.

O’Leary’s helping hand included furnishing Clinton with talking points to reassure a skittish Sen. Dianne Feinstein that Liu was a “mainstream progressive” with a “reputation for collegiality, moderation and judgment.”

Back in San Francisco, Kim, then a civil rights attorney and member of the school board, also weighed in with her support for Liu, tweeting: “Speaking out to support two excellent candidates for judicial appointment: Goodwin Liu and Ed Chen,” whom Obama had also nominated for a District Court judgeship.

Chen was confirmed but Liu’s nomination stalled in the Senate. In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown named him to a seat on the state Supreme Court, replacing retired Justice Carlos Moreno.

In 2014, Liu handily won a statewide retention vote that secured his seat for 12 years.

Liu continues to be mentioned as a possible U.S. Supreme Court candidate should Clinton be elected president — his name was included just last month on a short list of her “most likely” picks published in the capitol newspaper the Hill.

Word of the O’Leary-Liu separation comes just after the high-profile split of another top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, Anthony Weiner. The former New York congressman, mayoral candidate and serial sex texter’s self-taken, private-parts photo was just splashed across the front pages of the New York Post — again.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump quickly pounced on the scandal, charging that “Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information.”

As for the marital split, Trump said, “Huma is making a very wise decision. I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him.”

On the move: After 14 years at City Hall, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s chief spokesman, Matt Dorsey, is heading to the private sector.

He plans to take a job after Labor Day as a partner at Lighthouse Public Affairs, the fast-expanding PR and lobbying outfit born out of the recent merger of Alex Clemens’ Barbary Coast Consulting and the old firm run by Rich Peterson and Boe Hayward.

Dorsey, whose last day at City Hall was Tuesday, said it was time to make a change, but he also called it “an honor” working for Herrera. “I got to play a role on some righteous cases — like marriage equality, saving City College, health care access and so many others,” he said.

For his part, Herrera called it a “privilege and honor” to have worked with Dorsey all these years because “there is no greater pro than Matt Dorsey ... and he would be the first to tell you how great he is.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross