United States Office of Special Counsel - List Acting and Confirmed United States Special Counsels

List Acting and Confirmed United States Special Counsels

• Carolyn N. Lerner (Apr. 2011 > ). The United States Senate confirmed Carolyn Lerner as the 8th Special Counsel on April 14, 2011. Ms. Lerner was a partner at the civil rights and employment firm of Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman. She was recognized by Best Lawyers in America and was one of Washingtonian Magazine's top employment lawyers. At George Washington University Law School she served as adjunct faculty, and she was a mediator for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the D.C. Human Relations Commission. Before entering private practice, Ms. Lerner was law clerk to the Hon. Julian Abele Cook, Jr., Chief U. S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. She holds a J.D. from New York University (NYU) School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Snow public interest scholar. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, with highest honors, and a diploma in General Studies from the London School of Economics. While an undergraduate, Ms. Lerner was a Harry S. Truman public interest Scholar and a James B. Angel Scholar.

• William E. Reukauf, Acting (Nov. 2008 - Apr. 2011). Mr. Reukauf joined the legal staff of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) in January 1983. He was appointed Associate Special Counsel for Prosecution in February 1985. In 2001 he became the head of an Investigation and Prosecution division. Prior to taking over as Acting Special Counsel, he had responsibility for managing the activities of the agency’s regional field offices, as well as responsibility for OSC’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. Prior to joining OSC, Mr. Reukauf was, for several years, in private practice in Washington, DC. His practice was focused on general civil litigation and criminal defense. Mr. Reukauf began his legal career in 1970, as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1973 he joined the General Counsel’s office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as a senior trial attorney where he prosecuted enforcement actions involving toxic chemicals in the Division of Pesticides & Toxic Substances. Mr. Reukauf received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in 1966 and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1969. He is the author of Regulation of Toxic Pesticides, 62 Iowa L. Rev. 909 (1976–1977).

• Scott J. Bloch (Dec. 2003-Nov. 2008). On June 26, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Scott J. Bloch for the position of Special Counsel at the Office of Special Counsel. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Bloch on December 9, 2003. On Jan. 5, 2004, he was sworn in to serve a five-year term. Mr. Bloch brought 17 years of experience to the Office of Special Counsel, including litigation of employment, lawyer ethics, and complex cases before state courts, federal courts and administrative tribunals. He briefed and argued cases before state and federal appellate courts. From 2001-2003, Mr. Bloch served as Associate Director and then Deputy Director and Counsel to the Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on First Amendment cases, regulations, intergovernmental outreach, and programmatic initiatives. Before serving in the Justice Department, he was a partner with Stevens & Brand, LLP, of Lawrence, Kansas, where he practiced in the areas of civil rights law, employment law, and legal ethics. Mr. Bloch tried jury trials before state and federal courts, representing employees and employers in cases involving whistleblower and other retaliation claims, as well as civil rights claims. He worked on important cases that set precedents in the field of legal ethics, including a ground-breaking Texas case that changed the way plaintiffs’ lawyers handle mass tort cases. Mr. Bloch served as chair of his county Bar Ethics and Grievance Committee, investigating cases of alleged breaches by attorneys of ethics rules, and making recommendations to the state Supreme Court on disciplinary action. He also served on the state board of discipline, hearing testimony and legal arguments, and making findings on appropriate discipline of attorneys. For five years, he served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law. Mr. Bloch earned his bachelor's and law degree from the University of Kansas, where he graduated Order of the Coif, and served on the Boards of Editors of The Kansas Law Review and The Kansas Criminal Procedure Review. He lives with his wife, Catherine, and their seven children in Alexandria, Virginia.

• Elaine Kaplan (April 1998 – Dec. 2003). Ms. Kaplan came to OSC with extensive experience litigating employment-related issues before federal courts and administrative tribunals. Prior to her appointment as Special Counsel by President William Jefferson Clinton, Ms. Kaplan served as Deputy General Counsel of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), where she represented the interests of 150,000 employees in the areas of civil liberties, administrative law, racial and sexual discrimination, and labor law. During her 13 years at NTEU, Ms. Kaplan briefed and argued dozens of cases at all levels of the federal courts on behalf of the union and the federal employees it represented. Many of the cases in which Ms. Kaplan participated resulted in important precedent-setting decisions including, among others, National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656 (1989) (the first Supreme Court decision addressing Fourth Amendment implications of urinalysis drug-testing in the public workforce) and National Treasury Employees Union v. United States, 115 S.Ct. 1003 (1995) (which struck down on First Amendment grounds the statutory “honoraria ban” as applied to federal employees). Ms. Kaplan began her legal career in 1979 at the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, where she worked as a staff attorney in the Division of Employee Benefits. In 1982, Ms. Kaplan was selected to serve on the staff of the newly created Division of Special Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation, which was established to handle the Department’s most significant appellate cases and all of its Supreme Court work. She subsequently held the position of staff attorney at the State and Local Legal Center, where she drafted amicus briefs on behalf of state and local governments for submission to the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Kaplan, who is a native of Brooklyn, New York, received her undergraduate degree from Binghamton University and her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

• William E. Reukauf, Acting (~1997-April 8, 1998)

• Kathleen Day Koch (Dec 20, 1991 – ~1997). Prior to appointment by President George Herbert Walker Bush, Ms. Koch previously held the position of General Counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority from December 1988 to December 1991. In her term as General Counsel, she encouraged a heightened emphasis on conflict resolution through cooperation and dispute avoidance. She has been instrumental in creating a conflict resolution seminar program that has been utilitized by various federal agencies nationwide. Ms. Koch’s entire legal career has been in public service, where she has developed expertise in federal employee and government ethics issues. Prior to he appointment to the FLRA, she served as Associate Counsel to the President. She was asked to join the White House staff while serving as Senior Attorney in the Personnel Law Division at the Commerce Department. During the significant formative period of the Merits Systems Protection Board (1979–1984), Ms. Koch participated in the development of the adjudicatory agency’s procedural and substantive precedents. Her government career began in 1977 when she was appointed an Honors Program attorney at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Ms. Koch studied at Concordia College in Riverside, Illinois. She received her B.S. degree with honors from the University of Missouri at St. Louis in 1971, and was honored that year as a finalist in the Danforth Urban Leadership Fellow competition. Ms. Koch took her law degree from the University of Chicago, graduating in 1977.

• Mary F. Weiseman (Sept. 1986-1991). The third Special Counsel appointed by Ronald Reagan, Ms. Weiseman formerly served as Inspector General of the Small Business Administration. As Special Counsel, Wiseman focused on enforcement of the Hatch Act, which was then under review for statutory change, weakening its provisions. Wiseman’s goal was to vindicate the rights of government employees to be free from direct and indirect pressure by their supervisors to engage in partisan politics both on and off the job.

• Lynn R. Collins, Acting (June 1986-Sept. 1986). Had been the Deputy Special Counsel; in the next decade Collins would serve as Special Assistant to the Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of Interior, Sacramento, California.

• K. William O’Connor (Oct. 1982 – June 1986 ). The second Special Counsel appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Mr. O'Conner formerly served as Inspector General of the Community Services Administration. Prior to 1981, O'Connor had served as Special Counsel for Interagency Coordination and Staff Director of the Executive Group Staff. His duties included advising the Deputy Attorney General on policy, programs, and matters affecting the Executive Group. In 1978-80 he was Senior Trial Attorney (Prosecutor/GSA Task Force) and led teams of investigators and lawyers in grand jury investigations of fraud schemes at the General Services Administration. In 1976-78 he was Associate Justice and then Chief Justice, High Court of American Samoa. Mr. O'Connor was vice president and counsel, Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Inc., in 1975-76; Special Counsel, Intelligence Coordination, Department of Justice, in 1975; Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, in 1971-75; Chief, Criminal Section, Civil Rights Division, in 1970-71; assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, in 1967-70. Previously he held various positions with the Job Corps. Mr. O'Connor was graduated from the University of Virginia (B.A., 1952; LL.B., 1958). He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was discharged in 1955 as first lieutenant.

• Alex Kozinski (June 5, 1981 – Aug. 1982). The first Special Counsel appointed by President Reagan, Kozinski formerly served as an attorney with the Office of Counsel to the President; previously practiced with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

• Mary Eastwood, Acting (Jan. 11, 1980 – June 5, 1981). A native of Wisconsin, Mary Eastwood was graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1955 and moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked on a temporary study project for the National Academy of Sciences. She joined the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in 1960, serving both as an attorney advisor and later (1969–1979) as an equal opportunity advisor. The following year Eastwood became the associate special counsel for investigation in the special counsel's office of the Merit System Protection Board, which was charged with looking into allegations of illegal personnel practices in the federal government. As technical secretary to the civil and political rights committee of President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), Eastwood researched decisions involving women and the Fourteenth Amendment, and became increasingly interested in the women's movement. With Pauli Murray she wrote the highly influential article "Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII," which appeared in the Georgetown Law Review (34, December 1965). She was very active in the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW); a board member of Human Rights for Women (HRW), an organization formed in 1968 to help finance sex discrimination litigation and research projects on women's issues; and a member of Federally Employed Women (FEW), a group that sought an end to sex discrimination in the federal government.

• H. Patrick Swygert ( Jan. 2, 1979 – Dec. 21, 1979). Mr. Swygert was a recess appointment by President James Earl Carter, under an Administration whose support for the mission of Office of Special Counsel has been critiqued as lacking.