Who is Leonard Leo?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Leo
Leonard Anthony Leo (born 1965) is an American lawyer and conservative legal activist.
He was the longtime vice president of the Federalist Society and is currently, along withSteven Calabresi, the co-chairman of the organization's board of directors.
Leo has been instrumental in building a network of influential conservative legal groups funded mostly by anonymous donors, including The 85 Fund and Concord Fund,
which serve as funding hubs for affiliated political nonprofits.[1]
He assistedClarence Thomasin his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and led campaigns to support the nominations ofJohn Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Leonard Anthony Leo[2] was born on Long Island, New York, in 1965, and raised in suburban New Jersey. His grandfather, an Italian immigrant, was a vice president of Brooks Brothers.[3][4]
He grew up in a family of practicing Catholics.[3]
His father died when Leo was in preschool. His mother remarried an engineer when he was five years old, and the family moved to New Jersey, where he spent most of his childhood.[3]
Leo attended Cornell University,[4] graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1986, and working as an intern in the office of Senator Orrin Hatch.[3]
Leo completed a J.D. degree at Cornell Law School in 1989, then clerked for federal judge A. Raymond Randolph of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[3][4][5]
Judicial nomination work
While studying law at Cornell, Leo founded a student chapter of the Federalist Society in 1989, and subsequently went to work for the Society in 1991 in Washington, D.C.[3]
He met Clarence Thomas while clerking in the Appeals Court, and the two became close friends.
Leo delayed his start at the Federalist Society to assist Thomas in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.[4]
Leo served at the Federalist Society in various capacities for more than 25 years.
In 2019, The Washington Post reported that the Federalist Society had paid Leo an annual salary of more than $400,000 for a number of years.[4]