Sidley Austin Forum 2017

With immeasurable knowledge of the executive branch and the regulatory process, Podesta Group clients are fortunate to have Sally Katzen on their side. Easily guiding organizations through the complexities of the administration and the Office of Management and Budget, Sally offers sound strategic advice informed by decades of service. During the Obama-Biden transition, Sally served on the Agency Review Working Group, responsible for the Executive Office of the President and the operations of government agencies.
 

As a leading policy expert on budgetary issues, among others, Sally has testified before Congress more than 70 times and has participated on panels for the National Academy of Science. Serving for eight years in the Clinton administration, she was Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (1999-2001), Deputy Assistant to the President for economic policy, Deputy Director for the National Economic Council (1998-1999) and Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in OMB (1993-1998), where she was the senior adviser to the president on regulatory policy and process.

Sally was the first female partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where she specialized in administrative and legislative practice for more than 25 years. A well-respected professor, she has taught at the George Washington University, University of Michigan, New York University, George Mason University, University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University law schools, as well as at Smith College, Johns Hopkins University and the Michigan in Washington Program.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she has a bachelor's from Smith College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. She has served as chair of the section on administrative law and regulatory practice of the American Bar Association, president of the Federal Communications Bar Association and president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. She is also a fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration.

JOHN KUSTER has more than 20 years of experience litigating complex commercial litigation matters in Federal and state courts, as well as arbitrations. He has a diverse complex commercial litigation practice, and serves as one of the global co-leaders of the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation practice area team.

The scope of John’s experience is reflected in his representative matters, including:

• Representing client, an auto parts manufacturer, in an action brought by owner seeking US$50 million in damages relating to indemnification, environmental claims and alleged breaches of a lease arising out of alleged conditions at a manufacturing facility in Upstate New York which our client left at the end of the lease.
• Representing CONCACAF, a regional soccer confederation for North America, Central America, and the Caribbean in connection with the United States Department of Justice indictment of a number of its former executives and officers who allegedly were engaged in corruption, bribery and kickbacks, among other alleged misconduct, including conducting an internal investigation, renegotiation of major commercial contracts, and prosecuting and defending numerous claims arising out of the consequences of the alleged misconduct. Represented CONCACAF before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in appeal by former official to ban imposed on his participation in any football related activity within the CONCACAF region.
• Lead trial counsel in a bench trial where the firm’s client successfully enforced the provisions of a complex purchase price agreement concerning responsibility for significant environmental liabilities relating to a gas pipeline system.
• Serving as co-lead counsel in a three-week federal jury trial, which resulted in a US$125 million verdict in favor of the firm’s client finding that the defendant was liable for breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.
• Obtained a highly favorable settlement in April 2015 for a global investment management firm following a secured receivables-based loan to a special-purpose entity that was wholly owned by the Debtor.

Strong leadership has earned John recognition in The Legal 500 within Litigation: White-Collar Criminal Defense. John serves as a national co-chair of Sidley’s Recruiting of Associates Committee.

Trevor Morrison is dean and also the Eric M. and Laurie B. Roth Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. Before coming to NYU, he was on the faculties of Cornell Law School (2003-08) and Columbia Law School (2008-13). In 2009, Morrison served as associate counsel to President Barack Obama. Morrison’s research and teaching interests are in constitutional law, federal courts, and the law of the executive branch. His scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Columbia Law Review, among other publications. He was previously a law clerk to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1998-99) and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court (2002-03). Between the two clerkships, he was a Bristow Fellow in the US Justice Department’s Office of the Solicitor General (1999-2000), an attorney-adviser in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (2000-01), and an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (2001-02). Morrison received a BA with honors in history from the University of British Columbia in 1994, and a JD from Columbia Law School in 1998. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the US State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. In 2016, President Obama appointed him as chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board.

Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to the summer of 2009, he served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. McConnell has held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law and theory, especially church and state, equal protection, and the founding. In the past decade, his work has been cited in opinions of the Supreme Court second most often of any legal scholar. He is co-editor of three books: Religion and the Law, Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought, and The Constitution of the United States. McConnell has argued fifteen cases in the Supreme Court. He served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and is Of Counsel to the appellate practice of Kirkland & Ellis.

Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute. His research interests include executive power and the role of the presidency as well as federalism and overcriminalization. He is the author of False Idol: Barack Obama and the Continuing Cult of the Presidency and The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power; and is editor of Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything.

Healy has appeared on PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehrer and NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and his work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Legal Times, and elsewhere.

Healy holds a BA from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.

Eric Posner is Kirkland and Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Arthur and Esther Kane Research Chair. His current research interests are international law and constitutional law. His books include The Twilight of International Human Rights(Oxford, forthcoming 2014); Economic Foundations of International Law (with Alan Sykes) (Harvard, 2013); Contract Law and Theory (Aspen, 2011); The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic (with Adrian Vermeule) (Oxford, 2011); Climate Change Justice (with David Weisbach) (Princeton, 2010); The Perils of Global Legalism (Chicago, 2009); Terror in the Balance: Security, Liberty and the Courts (with Adrian Vermeule) (Oxford, 2007); New Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis (with Matthew Adler) (Harvard, 2006); The Limits of International Law (with Jack Goldsmith) (Oxford, 2005); Law and Social Norms (Harvard, 2000); Chicago Lectures in Law and Economics (editor) (Foundation, 2000); Cost-Benefit Analysis: Legal, Economic, and Philosophical Perspectives (editor, with Matthew Adler) (University of Chicago, 2001). He writes a column for Slate on legal issues. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute.

Daphna Renan is an Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches and writes about administrative law, presidential power, national security, and criminal procedure. Her work integrates legal analysis with interdisciplinary perspectives on the American presidency and administrative governance. From 2009-2012, Renan served in the U.S. Department of Justice as a Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and then as an Attorney Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel. She also served as a member of President-Elect Obama's Justice Department transition team. Renan clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal. She received her B.A., graduating summa cum laude, from Yale College.

Richard Pildes is one of the nation’s leading scholars of constitutional law and a specialist in legal issues affecting democracy. A former law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, he has been elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute, and has also received recognition as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Carnegie Scholar. His acclaimed casebook The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process helped create an entirely new field of study in the law schools. The Law of Democracy systematically explores legal and policy issues concerning the structure of democratic elections and institutions, such as the role of money in politics, the design of election districts, the regulation of political parties, the structure of voting systems, the representation of minority interests in democratic institutions, and similar issues. He has written extensively on the rise of political polarization in the United States, the Voting Rights Act, the dysfunction of America’s political processes, the role of the Supreme Court in overseeing American democracy, and the powers of the American President and Congress, and he has criticized excessively “romantic” understandings of democracy. In addition to his scholarship on these issues, he has written on national-security law, the design of the regulatory state, and American constitutional history and theory. A well-known public intellectual, Pildes also has successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court and was nominated for an Emmy as a member of NBC’s breaking-news team for coverage of the 2000 Bush v. Gore contest.

Mary B. DeRosa served as Deputy Assistant and Deputy Counsel to the President, and as National Security Council Legal Adviser in the Obama Administration. After leaving the White House in the Summer of 2011, she served as Alternate Representative of the United States to the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly, an Ambassador-level position with the US Mission to the United Nations. Prior to joining the Obama Administration in 2009, Ms. DeRosa was Chief Counsel for National Security for the Senate Judiciary Committee, working for the Chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy. She has also been a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, served on the staff of the Clinton Administration National Security Council as Legal Adviser and Deputy Legal Adviser, and was Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the Department of Defense. Before joining the government, Ms. DeRosa was in private practice at Arnold & Porter. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Cardamone, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Lisa Monaco assumed her duties as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism on March 8, 2013. As President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, she was responsible for advising the President on all aspects of counterterrorism policy and strategy and coordinating homeland security-related activities throughout the Executive Branch. She chaired meetings of the Cabinet-level Homeland Security Principals Committee, which advised the President on homeland security policy issues and crises. Ms. Monaco was responsible for policy coordination and crisis management on issues ranging from terrorist attacks at home and abroad to cybersecurity and natural disasters.

With immeasurable knowledge of the executive branch and the regulatory process, Podesta Group clients are fortunate to have Sally Katzen on their side. Easily guiding organizations through the complexities of the administration and the Office of Management and Budget, Sally offers sound strategic advice informed by decades of service. During the Obama-Biden transition, Sally served on the Agency Review Working Group, responsible for the Executive Office of the President and the operations of government agencies.

As a leading policy expert on budgetary issues, among others, Sally has testified before Congress more than 70 times and has participated on panels for the National Academy of Science. Serving for eight years in the Clinton administration, she was Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (1999-2001), Deputy Assistant to the President for economic policy, Deputy Director for the National Economic Council (1998-1999) and Administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in OMB (1993-1998), where she was the senior adviser to the president on regulatory policy and process.

Sally was the first female partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where she specialized in administrative and legislative practice for more than 25 years. A well-respected professor, she has taught at the George Washington University, University of Michigan, New York University, George Mason University, University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University law schools, as well as at Smith College, Johns Hopkins University and the Michigan in Washington Program.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she has a bachelor's from Smith College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School. She has served as chair of the section on administrative law and regulatory practice of the American Bar Association, president of the Federal Communications Bar Association and president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. She is also a fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration.

Michael A. Fitzpatrick currently serves as Senior Counsel and Head of Regulatory Advocacy for General Electric Company. He previously served as the Associate Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where he helped lead the development of regulatory policy and White House review of significant Executive Branch regulatory actions. He served as the Executive Branch liaison to the ABA’s Administrative Law Section and has led several U.S. delegations abroad for meetings with the European Union and Canada.

During the Presidential Transition, Fitzpatrick served as deputy lead of the Executive Office of the President and Government Operations Agency Review Teams. From 2001 to 2009, Fitzpatrick was in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he was a partner in the Litigation Practice Group, specializing in white collar, complex civil, and regulatory matters. Before joining Akin Gump, Fitzpatrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C., and as a Senior Advisor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.

Fitzpatrick clerked for Judge William Norris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after graduating from Stanford Law School. 

Associate Professor of Law Neomi Rao teaches and writes in the areas of structural constitutional law, administrative law, and legislation and statutory interpretation. She founded the law school's Center for the Study of the Administrative State. On July 10, 2017, the U.S. Senate confirmed Professor Rao as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an agency within the White House Office of Management and Budget. She is on a leave of absence while fulfilling her duties in that role.

Professor Rao’s recent scholarship has focused on the political and constitutional accountability of the administrative state, in particular considering the role of Congress. Her comparative analysis of the use of dignity in constitutional law has been widely cited in the United States and abroad.

Professor Rao serves as a Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and on the Governing Council of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, as well as co-chair of the Section’s Regulatory Policy Committee.

Professor Rao’s scholarship is informed by her service in all three branches of the federal government. Prior to joining the Law School, she served as Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. Professor Rao also served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she was responsible for judicial nominations and constitutional law issues. In between government service, Professor Rao practiced in the London office of Clifford Chance LLP, specializing in public international law and arbitration. She clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota Law School in fall 2013.

Professor Rao frequently speaks at academic and professional conferences, briefs congressional staff, and comments in print and broadcast media. She has testified before Congress on matters including the Dodd-Frank Act, Revisiting Chevron Deference, and the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Professor Rao received her JD with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School and her BA from Yale University. Professor Rao is a member of the Virginia State Bar and a Qualified Solicitor of England and Wales.

In Bob Bauer’s 40 years of practice, he has provided counseling and representation on matters involving the regulation of political activity before the courts and administrative agencies of national party committees, candidates, political committees, individuals, federal officeholders, corporations and trade associations, and tax-exempt groups. He served as White House Counsel to President Obama and returned to private practice in June 2011, and was general counsel to Obama for America, the president’s campaign organization, in 2008 and 2012. In 2013, President Obama appointed Bauer to the co-chairmanship of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. He is general counsel to the Democratic National Committee. Bauer is the author of several books and articles, and writes about campaign finance and other topics in political law at MoreSoftMoneyHardLaw.

Kenneth M. Duberstein is chairman and CEO of The Duberstein Group, an independent strategic planning and consulting company advising leading corporations and a select group of trade associations.

Duberstein served as a key member of the Reagan Administration during his various assignments as White House Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. He was a principal architect of the winning Reagan congressional coalition during the historic first term and returned to the White House for the last two years of the Administration to help lead and guide the rebuild of the Reagan Presidency after the so-called Iran-Contra scandal. Reagan left office at 68% job approval; the highest of any two term president since polling began.

Among the Board of Directors on which Duberstein serves are: The Boeing Company (Lead Director and Chairman of the Governance, Organization and Nominating Committees), the Travelers Companies (Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee), and Mack-Cali Realty Corporation. He previously was the Presiding Director at Conoco-Phillips and a member of the board at Dell, Inc.

He is a Lifetime Trustee of Franklin & Marshall College and The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. He is chairman of the Harvard University Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School, and serves on a wide range of commissions, task forces, and cultural, educational and volunteer boards, including the board of directors of the Brookings Institution, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and The Colin L. Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, having served on its board for 10 years.

Prior to joining the Reagan Administration, Duberstein was Vice President and Director of Business-Government Relations of the Committee for Economic Development. He returned to the private sector between his various White House assignments as Vice President of Timmons & Company Inc., a government relations firm. His earlier government service included Deputy Under Secretary of Labor during the Ford Administration and Director of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. General Services Administration. He began his public service on Capitol Hill as an assistant to Senator Jacob K. Javits (R-NY).

From 2003 to 2006, Duberstein was a consultant for storyline and accuracy for the Emmy Award winning TV series West Wing. He also appears as a commentator on network cable and Sunday morning news programs.

He was awarded the President’s Citizens Medal by President Reagan in January 1989. Duberstein graduated from Franklin and Marshall College (A.B., 1965) and American University (M.A., 1966). He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Franklin and Marshall in 1989.

Pete Rouse served as Counselor to President Barack Obama from 2011-2014 and earlier was White House Chief of Staff. As senior policy advisor and co-leader of the Public and Strategic Affairs Group, he provides policy analysis and offers strategic advice on navigating Congress and the executive branch. Pete counsels senior level executives on federal and state policy issues and related public communication challenges.

Known as the "101st Senator" for his extensive knowledge of the United States Senate, Pete served as Chief of Staff to members of Congress for more than 30 years. He was Chief of Staff to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota for 19 years. He also served as Chief of Staff to then Representative Dick Durbin of Illinois (1984-85), Rep. Berkley Bedell (1977-79) and Lt. Governor Terry Miller of Alaska (1979-83).

In addition, Pete was co-chair of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Project and a Senior Advisor to President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Previously, in 2006, as Chief of Staff to then Senator Barack Obama, Pete was part of a small group of advisors who helped Senator Obama through the process that led to his decision to run for president in 2008. Credited as the man who brought "no drama" to the Obama organization, Pete is the first Asian-American White House Chief of Staff in U.S. history. He received a B.A. from Colby College, an M.A. from the London School of Economics, and an M.P.A. from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Colby College. 

Michael Borden is a partner in the Government Strategies group. He offers counsel to clients facing complex and high stakes challenges involving legislation, Congressional investigations and government regulation. Michael has a broad-based practice. He primarily focuses on matters relating to the financial services industry but he represents clients in virtually every economic sector -- including tax, trade, technology, automotive, retail, health care, energy and agriculture.
Michael joined the firm after working for almost a decade on Capitol Hill, including as senior counsel of the House Financial Services Committee during the financial crisis and the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (P.L. 111-203). In that role, he was responsible for all aspects of banking, financial institutions and government-sponsored enterprise policy. He managed issues related to bank safety and soundness, the resolution of systemically important financial institutions as well as consumer access to credit. Michael directed efforts to enhance the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and he led the broader housing finance reform efforts in the House. He organized and crafted legislative amendments to the Dodd-Frank Act; negotiated, managed and executed the House Republicans’ TARP, auto bailout, subprime lending and mortgage rescue responses; and he drafted the SAFE Act (P.L. 110-289) to establish mortgage origination standards. He also handled consumer protection matters related to credit card practices, data security, money laundering and Internet gambling.
Prior to his tenure on the House Financial Services Committee, Michael served as a legislative aide to Representative Jim Leach. In that role, he focused on whether Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Farm Credit System and Industrial Loan Corporations were adequately regulated under existing law. He also drafted and led the effort to enact the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (P.L. 109-347).

A veteran of politics since 1990, Douglas Heye has served in leading communications positions in the House of Representatives and United States Senate, the Republican National Committee, as well as serving in the George W. Bush Administration.

Heye most recently served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, where he garnered on the record bi-partisan praise for his team-building, communications and strategic planning abilities. Upon Heye’s arrival in the Capitol in 2012, Roll Call quickly named Heye one of their “Fabulous 50,” noting Heye’s ability to “set the tone and frame the debate” as someone “in the room when decisions are made.”

In 2010, Heye served as communications director of the Republican National Committee. During these historic elections, Heye excelled in his handling of multiple large-scale public relations crises and pursuing an aggressive media strategy. Upon announcing his departure from the committee, Heye won unanimous, bi-partisan praise for his performance, being called a “pro’s pro” in POLITICO by his counterpart at the Democratic National Committee for his handling of what CNN labeled “one of the most demanding jobs in Washington.”

Heye served as a senior advisor to the Iowa Republican Party, managing all communications for the 2012 Iowa Caucus, and was a player in the 2010 Florida Recount, participating in Miami/Dade’s famed “Brooks Brothers Revolt.”

Heye is a sought-after commenter on political events and public policy, making more than two hundred appearances on national and international television networks, leading POLITICO to write in 2011, “when the red camera light turns on, Heye doesn’t disappoint.” He has written for many publications, including U.S. News & World Report, POLITICO, The Hill and Capitol File magazine.

Heye graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1994.  

Mike McCurry is of counsel at Public Strategies Washington, Inc., where he provides counsel on communications strategies and management to corporate and non-profit clients. He is also a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Public Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., concentrating on the intersections of faith, politics and public affairs.

McCurry is a veteran political strategist and spokesperson with four decades of experience in the nation’s capital. McCurry served in the White House as press secretary to President Bill Clinton (1995-1998). He also served as spokesman for the U.S. Department of State (1993-1995) and director of communications for the Democratic National Committee (1988-1990). McCurry held a variety of leadership roles in national campaigns for the Democratic ticket from 1984 to 2004.

McCurry began his career on the staff of the United States Senate, working as press secretary to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and to the committee's chairman, Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (1976-1981). He also served as press secretary to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1981-1983).

McCurry serves on numerous boards or advisory councils including Share Our Strength, the Children’s Scholarship Fund, the White House Historical Association and the Executive Committee of the Global Health Initiative of the United Methodist Church. He is a member and former co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates which sponsors the general election debates between candidates for President and Vice President of the United States. He is also an active lay leader in his local congregation of the Methodist church in Kensington, MD.

McCurry received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1976, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University in 1985, and a Master of Arts from Wesley Theological Seminary in 2013. 

Kwaku was named one of 2016’s top 40 under 40 business leaders by the Washington Business Journal. In recognition of his litigation success, he was also named a “D.C. Rising Star” by the National Law Journal 2015.

Prior to joining the firm, Kwaku served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 2009 to 2012, Kwaku was an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, he provided legal advice to departments and agencies of the executive branch on a variety of matters, including questions relating to the constitutional separation of powers, the interpretation of federal statutes, and international law principles. Prior to his time at the Justice Department, Kwaku was an associate in the appellate litigation practice of a global law firm in New York, where he also gained trial court experience representing clients in commercial, products-liability and securities cases.

Kwaku maintains an active pro bono practice. He argued a Fourth Circuit appeal concerning fast-track immigration removal orders and handled a habeas challenge to immigration detention in Maryland Federal District Court. For these efforts, he was named to the 2015 pro bono honor roll of the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Kwaku has also argued a case in the D.C. Circuit concerning the interpretation and constitutionality of the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s three-strikes provision, and authored an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court in an important juvenile sentencing case raising significant federal constitutional issues. 

Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr. has an active corporate governance, internal investigations, compliance, and strategic counseling practice.

A.B. served as Chair of the Firm from 2000 to early 2012. He has practiced law with O’Melveny from 1976 to 1984, and from 1989 to the present.

From March 1987 through January 1989, A.B. served as Counsel to the President of the United States. As White House Counsel, A.B. advised President Ronald Reagan on matters ranging from the Iran-Contra investigations, to the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Anthony Kennedy, to the legal aspects of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty; and he chaired the inter-agency lawyers Committee on War Powers and the President’s Committee on Federal Judicial Nominations. In January 1989, President Reagan awarded Culvahouse the Presidential Citizens’ Medal, an award established in 1969 to “recognize citizens who performed exemplary deeds of service for the country or their fellow citizens.”

From June 1973 until November 1976, A.B. was Chief Legislative Assistant and Counsel to US Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr.

From 1990 through 1992, A.B. served as a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Nuclear Failsafe and Risk Reduction, appointed by the Secretary of Defense, to evaluate and recommend improvements in the United States Nuclear Command and Control System. In December of 1992, Secretary of Defense Cheney awarded A.B. the Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. A.B.'s prior service on boards and commissions includes service on The President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Intelligence Oversight Board (2006-2009); the Nuclear Command and Control System Federal Advisory Committee, appointed by the Secretary of Defense (2008-2009); the US Chamber of Commerce Commission on the Regulation of US Capital Markets in the 21st Century (2006-2007); the Board of Directors of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (2009-2012); the Supreme Court Fellows Commission (2002-2005); the Board of Visitors of the US Naval Academy (1989-1991); and the Counterintelligence Advisory Panel to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1989-1990).

A.B. serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Brookings Institution and the Board of the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.

A.B. received his J.D. from New York University and earned his B.S. from the University of Tennessee. A.B. is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, California (inactive), New York, Tennessee, and the U.S. Supreme Court. A.B. was born on July 4, 1948, and is a native of Ten Mile, Tennessee. 

Kathryn Ruemmler is the global Co-chair of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice and a partner in the Litigation & Trial Department.

Ms. Ruemmler has broad experience advising individual executives and boards of directors in a wide range of matters, with a particular emphasis on government enforcement and regulatory matters and corporate governance. She has built a reputation as a formidable litigator with an unusual breadth of experience in crisis management, policy development, and regulatory and enforcement matters. She focuses on white collar criminal defense, SEC and other agency enforcement matters, and congressional and internal investigations. She is also an experienced first-chair trial lawyer.

Ms. Ruemmler rejoined the firm in 2014 after serving for almost six years in the Obama Administration, first in the Department of Justice and later as Counsel to the President. As President Obama’s chief lawyer, she was one of his most senior advisors, providing advice on all legal matters implicating domestic and foreign policy and national security. She advised on all significant litigation matters, including the most consequential cases heard by the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Ruemmler also managed the Administration’s response to congressional and other investigations and was responsible for the selection and nomination process of federal judges. President Obama has described her as having “an uncanny ability to see around the corners that no one else anticipates.”

Prior to her White House service, Ms. Ruemmler served as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, joining the Justice Department on the first day of the Obama Administration as its highest-ranking political appointee. In that role, she was the Deputy Attorney General’s primary advisor on a range of criminal policy, law enforcement, national security, and civil litigation matters. She worked closely with the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General in the overall management and supervision of the Justice Department’s components, including the United States Attorney’s Offices.

Ms. Ruemmler has significant jury trial experience and has tried more than 20 cases to verdict both inside the government and in private practice. She worked for six years as a federal prosecutor, first as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C. and later as the Deputy Director of the Enron Task Force. Ms. Ruemmler was one of the lead prosecutors in the successful securities fraud prosecution of former Enron CEO’s Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. She delivered the closing argument in that case and received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department of Justice’s highest award, for her performance.

Ms. Ruemmler was previously a litigation partner at Latham where she represented corporate and individual clients in a variety of criminal and civil enforcement matters, internal investigations, and at trial. Earlier in her career, Ms. Ruemmler served as Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton where she defended the White House and the Office of the President in independent counsel and congressional investigations. She began her career as a law clerk to Judge Timothy K. Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.