The Honorable Jim Webb

United States Senator
Virginia
December 18, 2007

Senator Jim Webb
Statement on Behalf of Ondray T. Harris
Nominee to be the Department of Justice's
Director of the Community Relations Service
December 18, 2007

Before the Committee on the Judiciary

Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Specter, and my other distinguished colleagues on the Committee on the Judiciary, today I am pleased to introduce to you Ondray T. Harris, a Virginian who has been nominated to be Director of the Community Relations Service at the Department of Justice.

Mr. Harris has a distinguished employment history practicing law and with the Department of Justice. He currently serves as Acting Director of the Community Relations Service at the Department of Justice. Previously, Mr. Harris served as a Deputy Chief in the Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. In fact, he returned to this position in 2005 after leaving the LeClair Ryan law firm in Richmond, Virginia, where he was a partner. Before his initial tour with the Justice Department in 2004, Mr. Harris served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1999-2004 where his primary focus was labor and employment law. He has also worked as an associate at Krumbein and Associates in Richmond, Virginia.

Mr. Harris graduated with an A.A. in Liberal Arts from Ferrum College. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Hampden-Sydney College, and he earned his Juris Doctorate from Washington and Lee University. Mr. Harris is also a graduate of the Herbert Stern Trial Advocacy School at the University of Virginia. Moreover, he participated in the Richmond Women's Bar Mentorship Program, and has volunteered at an inner-city elementary school to educate students on the political process and law.

I respectfully ask that due consideration be afforded to Mr. Harris's nomination to be Director of the Community Relations Service at the Department of Justice. I thank the Committee.