Jennifer C. Selber is the General Counsel of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Governor Shapiro appointed her to this position effective January 17, 2023. In this position, Ms. Selber leads the Governor's Office of General Counsel (OGC) and oversees the provision of legal services to the Governor, his senior staff, and over thirty (30) executive branch and independent agencies.
As General Counsel, Ms. Selber serves as a close advisor to Governor Shapiro and his senior leadership team. In leading the Office of General Counsel, Ms. Selber oversees the legal review and approval of a myriad of executive orders, each serving as a bedrock for numerous policy objectives championed by the governor. While leading a staff of nearly 1000 employees, including almost 600 attorneys, across thirty-plus agencies, Ms. Selber has prioritized the strategic hiring of new Commonwealth attorneys in key areas such as election law and transactional practice, with a particular emphasis on technology procurement.
Prior to this appointment, Ms. Selber served as Executive Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania in charge of the Criminal Division, where she supervised over 500 employees and all criminal investigations and prosecutions under Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Under her leadership, the Criminal Division took on impactful cases, such as securing the release of the landmark Grand Jury Report on Child Sexual Abuse, which inspired new laws nationwide, to uncovering the largest prevailing wage theft case in U.S. history and returning $20 million in stolen wages to Pennsylvania workers. Her pioneering work included dramatically increasing federal, state and local law enforcement's ability to track crime guns and overseeing the launch of the Commonwealth Investigator Training Program, a new, state-of-the-art training curriculum, developed with other state agencies and run by the Office of Attorney General for all civil and criminal investigators in Pennsylvania.
Prior to her appointment at the Office of Attorney General, Ms. Selber served as the Chief of the Homicide Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. In that role, she oversaw all of the homicide investigations, arrests and prosecutions in Philadelphia. An accomplished trial lawyer, Ms. Selber tried close to 100 jury trials, many of them homicides. She successfully prosecuted the building contractor, whose negligence caused the collapse of a Salvation Army building in center city Philadelphia that killed six people, and was co-counsel on a first of its kind prosecution of DHS workers whose negligence led to the starvation death of a 14-year-old, disabled girl.
In 2017, she became a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers currently serves on their State Committee. Ms. Selber also sits on the board of JCHAI, a non-profit organization that helps adults with developmental disabilities and autism live independently.
Ms. Selber received her law degree from the University of Virginia, and her undergraduate degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.