Kellyanne Conway's husband, George Conway, could lead the Justice Department's civil division. | AP Photo Kellyanne Conway’s husband emerges as front-runner to head DOJ's civil division

George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, has emerged as the front-runner to lead the civil division of the Department of Justice, according to two people familiar with the matter.

It could prove a key job as the head of the civil division will oversee the defense of the Trump administration in the courts in many legal battles, including those over the president's stalled executive order related to travel from certain Muslim-majority countries.


Conway, a partner at the firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, was previously considered for the post of solicitor general, which argues before the Supreme Court, but that job ultimately went to Noel Francisco.

Conway, who is of Filipino descent, is a respected longtime GOP lawyer who received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his law degree from Yale. He previously clerked for Judge Ralph Winter on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, according to his Wachtell Lipton biography. In the 1990s, he was on the legal team of some of the female accusers of President Bill Clinton.

The current acting assistant attorney general, Chad Readler, is a veteran of Jones Day, the former law firm of White House Counsel Don McGahn.

The DOJ declined to comment. The White House and both George and Kellyanne Conway did not immediately respond to requests for comment.