Raphael to step down as state solicitor general

Virginia Solicitor General Stuart A. Raphael, who led a charge against President Trump’s controversial travel ban in February, is resigning at the end of this month.

Raphael, of Arlington, was appointed solicitor general in 2014 by then-Attorney General-elect Mark Herring. Raphael said he plans to return to private practice.

The successful effort to overturn Virginia’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was one of the highlights of his service, Raphael said in a July 8 interview. He also cited his work to win the nation’s first preliminary injunction against the Trump travel ban and a 2016 racial gerrymandering case where the U.S. Supreme Court refused to disturb a judge-imposed congressional redistricting map.

“It has been a whirlwind. For someone who loves constitutional law and appellate work, it’s been like being a kid in a candy store,” Raphael said.

Raphael, 52, said he looks forward to life without the commute between Arlington and Richmond.

“I kind of promised my family this would be no more than four years. I want to go home while my wife still wants me to come home,” Raphael said.

The solicitor general’s office represents the state in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Virginia, and federal circuit courts in non-capital cases that call into question the constitutionality of a state statute or that bear on sensitive state policies. The SG’s office also assists other attorney general divisions with constitutional and appellate issues.

Before his appointment as Virginia’s fifth solicitor general, Raphael was a partner in the McLean office of Hunton & Williams LLP, where he began his law practice in 1989.

He is a 1986 graduate of Harvard College and a 1989 graduate of the University of Virginia law school.