Kate Heinzelman

Kate Heinzelman is a visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School. From 2022 to 2025, Heinzelman served as general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. Prior to her work at the Agency, Heinzelman was the chief counselor in the Office of the Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). During the Obama Administration, Heinzelman served as deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, as associate counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office, and as counsel in the National Security Division at DOJ. In private practice, she was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP. Heinzelman clerked for Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Merrick B. Garland on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She earned a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.