Elena Kagan (pron-en?ke???n; born April 28, 1960) is the Solicitor General of the United States and a pending nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court (Supreme Court of the United States).

Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After attending Princeton (Princeton University), Oxford (Oxford University), and Harvard Law School, she completed federal Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerkships. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as an Associate White House Counsel and later policy adviser under President Clinton (Bill Clinton). After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its Dean.

She was appointed Solicitor General (Solicitor General of the United States) by President Barack Obama on January 26, 2009. On May 10, 2010, President Obama nominated (Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination) Kagan to the Supreme Court (Supreme Court of the United States) to fill the vacancy from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens at the end of the Supreme Courts 2009-2010 term.