Joe Biden, the President-elect of the United States of America, has appointed Nigerian-born Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo into his cabinet.
The President-elect made announcement when he named additional 20 members of the office of the White House counsel.
Badejo is a lawyer and an alumna of Berkeley Law College in the US, and served as ethics counsel in the same office toward the end of the President Barrack Obama administration.
She, alongside other lawyers of the Office of White House Counsel will be advising the President, the executive office of the president, and the White House staff on legal issues pertaining to the president and the White House.
A statement on the Biden-Harris transition website said that Badejo was general counsel of the house select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis which was chaired by James Clyburn, House Majority Whip.
“Her prior government service includes serving as Counsel for policy to the Assistant Attorney-General in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Ethics Counsel at the White House Counsel’s Office and Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Obama-Biden administration,†the statement read.
Congratulations to @BerkeleyLaw alum Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo on her appointment to the Office of the White House Counsel!https://t.co/rjzm2FdEBn pic.twitter.com/dza08AfrLf
— Berkeley Law Careers (@BerkeleyLawCDO) January 12, 2021
People of colour also announced in Biden’s White House legal team include Samiyyah Ali who was appointed deputy associate counsel, Tona Boyd as special counsel and Megan Ceronsky as associate counsel.
Funmi, who married another Nigerian Tunde Badejo, is from Kogi state, and she is an alumnus of Berkeley Law College in the United States.
A daughter of an immigrant who chooses to identify herself with Florida, Funmi was the general counsel of the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis.
Funmi’s legal career started as an associate with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and was Legal Counsel at Palantir Technologies Inc.
She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Florida.
Biden will become the 46th President of the United States after his swearing-in slated for January 20, 2021
He defeated the incumbent President Donald Trump in the November 3 presidential election after scoring over 300 electoral college votes
Although Trump rejected the election result claiming electoral fraud, he could not provide proofs and has lost numerous cases he filed in court.
President Trump was however, impeached on Wednesday for the second time having been accused of inciting his supporters to launch a deadly attack on US Capitol In a final push to stop the confirmation of Biden as the winner of the election by the Congress.
Biden had earlier In December 2020 appointed a Nigerian-American, Osaremen Okolo, a Ni, a member of Biden’s COVID-19 response team.
Before then, Nigerian-born Adewale Adeyemo has been appointed as deputy secretary of the treasury department.
