Education
Yale College; Yale University. Stanford Law School.
Yale College; Yale University. Stanford Law School.
In 2010 and 2011 had been nominated by President Barack Obama to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In November 2011, however, DuMont sent a letter to President Obama asking him to withdraw his nomination to the judgeship. Obama withdrew DuMont"s nomination on November 10, 2011, nominating Richard G. Taranto in DuMont"s place.
DuMont currently is California"s solicitor general.
Born in Oakland, California and raised in northern California, DuMont received a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Yale University in 1983, and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1986. DuMont then served as a law clerk to Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1986 to 1987.
After his clerkship, he was awarded a Henry Luce Scholarship, which allowed him to spend a year working at a law firm in Bangkok, Thailand. DuMont has argued eighteen cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and has briefed many more.
Those cases have covered a wide range of legal issues.
DuMont joined WilmerHale in 2002. On April 14, 2010, President Obama nominated DuMont to fill the vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that was to be created by Judge Paul Redmond Michel retiring on May 31, 2010. DuMont"s nomination languished for more than 18 months without a hearing.
National Public Radio commented on the delay in an August 4, 2011 article, stating that "Some of the longest waiting nominees, Louis Butler of Wisconsin, Charles Bernard Day of Maryland and Edward Dumont of Washington happen to be black or openly gay".
DuMont would have been the first openly gay United States appeals court judge. The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary never scheduled a hearing on the nomination.
On November 9, 2011, the National Law Journal reported that DuMont had submitted a letter to President Obama, asking that the president withdraw his nomination. Obama did so on November 10, 2011.
After his failed Federal Circuit nomination, DuMont remained at WilmerHale.
Then, on October 28, 2013, California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed DuMont to be California"s solicitor general, serving as the chief appellate lawyer for the California Department of Justice.