Elena Kagan is an American lawyer and jurist who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010 and confirmed by the Senate in August of that year. Kagan previously served as the first female Solicitor General of the United States from 2009 to 2010 and as a professor of law at Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009. She also served as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court from 1988 to 1991. Kagan's current role on the bench is to interpret and apply the law to cases brought before the court.