Heytens named as solicitor general

University of Virginia law Prof. Toby J. Heytens will take the reins as solicitor general to start the second term of Attorney General Mark R. Herring. Heytens succeeds Acting Solicitor General Trevor S. Cox who will return to private practice, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office.

As solicitor general, Heytens will lead the office’s appellate practice and spearhead major litigation. Heytens has litigation and appellate experience in both federal and state court, the release said. He currently is a co-director of the Supreme Court litigation clinic at the U.Va. law school. He has worked at the federal Office of the Solicitor General and clerked for both U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Judge Edward Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He had a private practice at O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

“His work as a clerk to Justice Ginsburg, in the U.S. solicitor general’s office, as an advocate in the Supreme Court, and as an educator on the law will make him an outstanding solicitor general,” Herring said in the news release.

Heytens’ appointment will take effect on Feb. 21, following a previously scheduled argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, the release said.

Acting deputy solicitor general Matthew R. McGuire has been promoted to full deputy solicitor general. He has served in Herring’s administration since 2015 as an assistant attorney general, assistant solicitor general, and acting deputy solicitor general.