David Leitch
Title: Group Vice President and General Counsel, Ford Motor Company
David Leitch is general counsel and a group vice president of Ford Motor Company, where he leads the company’s litigation, tax, corporate and intellectual property efforts. He also advises the company’s board of directors and senior management on a wide range of legal issues, and oversees its General Auditor’s Office.
Leitch arrived at Ford in April of 2005. Under his leadership, the Office of General Counsel has won numerous awards, including being named Corporate Counsel magazine’s Best Legal Department in 2006. Leitch has been profiled and quoted in numerous magazines, including Corporate Counsel and Inside Counsel. He was honored in 2011 as the overall winner of the General and In-House Counsel Awards by Crain’s Detroit Business.
Immediately prior to joining Ford, Leitch served in the White House as deputy counsel to President George W. Bush. In that capacity, he advised the President and his staff on a variety of legal issues, including issues involving national security, judicial nominations, legislative proposals and ethics. From June 2001 through December 2002, Leitch served as chief counsel for the Federal Aviation Administration. He is also a past deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel. From 2006 to 2012, Leitch served as chair of the Supreme Court Fellows Commission, a position to which he was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
Leitch’s law career includes serving as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as a law clerk to Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, and as a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P. (now Hogan Lovells). Leitch is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated first in his class, and received his undergraduate degree from Duke University.
Leitch is a member of the board of directors of Talmer Bank, and chair of the board of the National Chamber Litigation Center. He is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, and also serves on general counsel advisory committees for the National Center for State Courts and the Civil Justice Reform Group.
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January 2013