R. (Ted) Edward Cruz

Partner

R. (Ted) Edward Cruz is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice and leads the firm's U.S. Supreme Court and national Appellate Litigation Practice. Described by National Law Journal as "a key voice" whom "the [U.S. Supreme Court] Justices listen to", Mr. Cruz has authored more than 70 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and presented 34 oral arguments, including eight before the U.S. Supreme Court, the most of any lawyer in Texas.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Cruz served as the Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 until May 2008. Mr. Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas and, when appointed, was the youngest Solicitor General in the United States.

As Solicitor General, Mr. Cruz served as the chief appellate lawyer for the State of Texas, leading a team of 15 appellate attorneys in the Office of the Solicitor General and supervising every appeal, civil and criminal, in state and federal court, on behalf of the State, its agencies, and its officials. Clients included the State of Texas, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Attorney General, the Comptroller, the Secretary of State, the Health and Human Services Commission, the Department of Health, the Department of Criminal Justice, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, the Department of Transportation, the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and the University of Houston. In addition, he was the longest-serving senior legal advisor to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and was charged with personally litigating, in the trial courts and the courts of appeals, those cases raising the most significant and challenging legal issues for the state.

For five consecutive years, Mr. Cruz won the Best Brief Award by the National Association of Attorney Generals (NAAG) for U.S. Supreme Court briefs authored in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. In addition, since 2004 he has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches U.S. Supreme Court Litigation.

From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Cruz served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where he led policy development and legal strategy as part of the senior executive team for the FTC. In that capacity he chaired the FTC Internet Task Force, the State Action Task Force, and the Noerr-Pennington Task Force; testified before Congress and state legislatures and agencies across the country; and convened public hearings on Internet commerce, examining legal and regulatory barriers to the entry of new Internet competitors in retailing, auctions, automobile sales, health care, pharmaceutical sales, telemedicine, education, contact lens sales, real estate, mortgage lending, financial services, wine sales, casket sales, and online legal practice.

Mr. Cruz previously served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as Department of Justice Coordinator for the Bush Transition Team. From June 1999 until December 2000, he served as Domestic Policy Advisor to President George W. Bush on the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, where he had primary responsibility for all legal policy.

Mr. Cruz currently serves on the board of advisors of the Texas Review of Law & Politics and the Hispanic Alliance for Progress and has been elected a member of the American Law Institute, a director and former vice president of the Texas Lyceum, and a member of the Texas Philosophical Society.

Mr. Cruz received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the Harvard Law School in 1995, where he was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, an executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. He was also named a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. Mr. Cruz received his A.B., cum laude, from Princeton University in 1992, where he was named the U.S. National Speaker of the Year and the U.S. National Team of the Year, and won the First Place Speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debate Championships. In 1995, he served as a law clerk to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, in 1996, as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Cruz is admitted to practice in Texas and the District of Columbia.