Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, has left her job as a corporate litigator for the prestigious San Francisco law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson.
Just minutes after former President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he’d be adding J.D. to his ticket for November’s presidential election, Usha’s online bio disappeared from the firm’s website. When SFGATE asked the company why her bio was removed, Sara Rosenblit, a spokesperson for the firm, said in a statement that Usha is leaving Munger, Tolles & Olson.
“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,” the statement said. “Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”
Usha Vance confirmed that she will be stepping aside in a separate statement to SFGATE.
“In light of today’s news, I have resigned from my position at Munger, Tolles & Olson to focus on caring for our family,” she said. “I am forever grateful for the opportunities I’ve had at Munger and for the excellent colleagues and friends I’ve worked with over the years.”
SFGATE was able to obtain screenshots of Usha’s bio through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
That bio said Usha worked as a litigator in the firm’s San Francisco and Washington, D.C., offices, where her practice mainly dealt with “complex litigation and appeals in a wide variety of sectors, including higher education, local government, entertainment, and technology, including semiconductors.” It also stated that she lives in Cincinnati with her husband and three children.
Outside of her work at the firm, Usha clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — a Trump pick — back when he was a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Her bio also says she clerked for Amul Thapar, now a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, back when he served in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Usha earned her law degree from Yale. While there, she was an editor for Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal of Law & Technology. Her bio also said she took part in the U.S. Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic, which offers clients free representation in front of the Supreme Court, and the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, which advocates for news outlets in the form of litigation and other legal work. She also participated in the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program.
Jeff Dean/AP
J.D. Vance, who wrote the 2016 bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” has his own ties to San Francisco. Vance went to work for Mithril Capital Management, formerly based in San Francisco, in 2013 after graduating with a law degree from Yale. That firm was co-founded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel — who backed Vance in his run for the U.S. Senate — and is now based in Austin, but still has an office in the Presidio.
A voicemail left with the company by SFGATE was not immediately returned.
Despite being a former “Never Trumper,” Vance earned the former president’s endorsement in his run for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and has steadfastly defended Trump since assuming office. He was rumored to be on Trump’s short list for vice president well before Monday’s announcement on Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social.
“J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond,” Trump said in a post announcing his decision.