Who is Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon - Chief of Staff for the First Lady: Biography, Career, Life and Family

Mixi December 21, 2020 | 08:29

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a partner in Winston & Strawn’s New York office and a former U.S. ambassador to Uruguay, will be chief of staff for incoming first lady Dr. Jill Biden. Follow this article to know more about her!

Who is Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon?

Reynoso Pantaleon. Photo: OnCube

Reynoso Pantaleon (born January 2, 1975) is a Dominican-American attorney and diplomat. She is set to become the chief of staff to Jill Biden when she becomes the first lady of the United States. She currently serves as a litigation and international arbitration partner with the international law firm Winston & Strawn LLP. She was previously a partner with Chadbourne & Parke LLP, practicing in the firm's International Arbitration and Latin America groups.Reynoso is also affiliated with the faculty at Columbia University School of Law and the School of International and Public Affairs.From March 2012 until December 2014, she served as United States Ambassador to Uruguay. She is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the United States Department of State.

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon Early Life and Education

A native of the Dominican Republic, Reynoso immigrated to the United States in 1982. She graduated valedictorian of her class at Aquinas High School in the Bronx. She was admitted to Harvard University, where she helped found several student groups and was active with The Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

After earning an A.B. in government from Harvard University in 1997, Reynoso was named the John Harvard Scholar and earned a Master of Philosophy in development studies in 1998 from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Reynoso also earned a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2001. At Columbia, she was the editor for the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. After law school, she clerked for Judge Laura Taylor Swain.

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon Career

Photo: Spectacular Magazine

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon is a partner at the law firm of Winston & Strawn. During the Obama-Biden administration, Reynoso served as U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere in the U.S. Department of State, where she developed comprehensive security and rule of law strategies for Central America and the Caribbean. Reynoso serves on the boards of several nonprofit and advocacy organizations, and was on the faculty of Columbia Law School and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. She serves as a trustee for New York-Presbyterian Hospital and for Columbia University, and is on the Board of Directors of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and the Truman National Security Project. Reynoso was born in the Dominican Republic, migrated to the United States at the age of seven, and grew up in the Bronx, New York City. She clerked for Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York, and is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and Columbia Law School, according to Buildbackbetter.gov.

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon Stays Close to Her Roots

As part of the Biden-Harris team, Reynoso Pantaleón will be in a position to engage in issues that have been central to her academic and professional career—education, political reform, and immigration policy, as well as Latin American affairs and culture. During her time in law school, and, later, as a Columbia Law School Fellow, she published numerous articles on regulatory and housing reform and community organizing.

Since law school, she hasn’t strayed far from her roots. In 2009, she served as Secretary Hillary Clinton’s deputy assistant secretary of state for Central American, Caribbean, and Cuban Affairs and in 2012, Obama named her U.S. ambassador to Uruguay.

Reynoso Pantaleón is the recipient of the highest diplomatic honors bestowed by several Latin American governments and has received numerous public interest awards, including recognition from Columbia University, the NorthStar Foundation, the Legal Aid Society, and the Hispanic National Bar Foundation, according to Colombia News.