Ed Siskel

Siskel (born 1972) is an American lawyer from Chicago who is the current White House Counsel in the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, serving since September 2023.

A Chicago native, Siskel earned an undergraduate degree in 1994 from Wesleyan University. Siskel is Jewish.

Siskel earned a Juris Doctor degree in 2000 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a student of future President Barack Obama and where he was editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. From 2000 until 2002, Siskel was a law clerk first for United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson and then for United States Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.

From 2002 until 2005, Siskel was a lawyer for the WilmerHale law firm. From 2005 until 2009, Siskel was a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago and was an associate deputy attorney general in the United States Department of Justice. He later worked in the White House counsel's office during the administration of President Barack Obama, including as Deputy Counsel. In that role, Siskel oversaw the White House's legal responses to congressional oversight and to complex challenges such as the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Siskel then returned to private practice at WilmerHale. From 2017 until 2019, he served in the office of corporation counsel for the City of Chicago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

From 2019 until he was named White House Counsel, Siskel was chief legal officer for Chicago-based Grosvenor Holdings LLC.

On August 22, 2023, Siskel was named the designate to serve as White House Counsel, replacing Stuart Delery. Siskel began serving as White House counsel in September 2023.

Siskel is the nephew of the late film critic Gene Siskel.