Courtney Simmons Elwood served as General Counsel of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency from June 2017 to January 2021. From 2001 to 2007, she held a number of senior positions in the federal government, including as Associate Counsel to the President, Deputy Counsel to the Vice President, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General. Before and after that stint in the government, Courtney was a partner at the law firm Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, PLLC. She joined the firm in 1996, after clerking for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Courtney is a graduate of Yale Law School and a summa cum laude graduate of Washington and Lee University. She has served as a member of the D.C. Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Procedures and a member of the Yale Law School Association Executive Committee. Courtney is married to John Elwood, also a lawyer. They have two children, and live in Courtney’s hometown, Alexandria, Virginia.