Updated

Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. will be put up as President Obama's next nominee for solicitor general, replacing Elena Kagan for the post she held before becoming a Supreme Court justice.

The White House issued a statement Monday saying Verrilli, currently deputy counsel to the president, will go before a Senate committee confirmation to be chief lawyer for the United States at the high court.

The president also named David S. Cohen as his choice to be the top man in charge of the administration's anti-terror financing team.

"I am grateful these accomplished individuals have agreed to continue their service to the nation, and I'm confident they will serve ably in these important roles. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years," he said.

The nomination of Verrilli is not a big surprise as he had been rumored to be on the short list for some time. The chatter around his nomination didn't raise many flags, and discussion of the former associate deputy attorney general for domestic and national security policy did not feature him being named a possible Supreme Court pick as Kagan was.

Verrilli served as a private practice litigator at Jenner & Block for 20 years before joining the Justice Department in February 2009. His practice focused on First Amendment, telecommunications and intellectual property law. He also headed the firm's Supreme Court practice group, and has participated in more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, arguing a dozen of them.

Arguing on behalf of the music industry in 2005, Verrilli won a Supreme Court ruling in MGM Studios v. Grokster which opened online file-sharing companies to potential liability. The justices ruled that if the online file-sharing companies were found to intentionally induce or encourage the theft of copyrighted works, they could be held liable.

At the Justice Department before taking the White House post a year ago, Verrilli fashioned new restrictions on invoking the state secrets privilege, which allows the federal government to block lawsuits that would inevitably disclose national security secrets.

He served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Fox News' Mike Emanuel and Lee Ross and The Associated Press contributed to this report.