Varu Chilakamarri

Varu Chilakamarri served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Torts Branch since May 2021. Previously, Varu was a career appellate attorney in the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, where she was also appointed as the Division’s first Counselor for Animal Welfare Matters.  Before that, she served as Chief of Staff to the Division’s Assistant Attorney General from 2015-2017. From 2012-2014, Varu served in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, first as a Senior Counselor and then as Acting Deputy. Varu joined the Department in 2006 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, beginning her career as a trial attorney in the Civil Division’s Federal Programs Branch.

Before joining the Justice Department, Varu clerked for Judge R. Guy Cole in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Timothy B. Dyk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004 and graduated from Ohio State University in 2001.