United States Office of Special Counsel

(March 6, 2024 – present)

Hampton Dellinger

Karen Gorman, Acting (October 23, 2023 – March 6, 2024)

(October 30, 2017 – October 23, 2023) Confirmed by the 115th United States Senate (voice vote) on October 16, 2017. He graduated from Harvard Law School and spent 18 years working as a career prosecutor in California. In 2011, he joined the staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the chief investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. Kerner was also the staff director under Ranking Member Sen. John McCain of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the lead investigative committee of the Senate. He left in early 2016 and joined Cause of Action Institute as vice president for Investigations. The group is a nonpartisan oversight foundation committed to exposing waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, which itself has worked with whistleblower and government groups throughout the country.^[43]

Henry Kerner

, Acting (September – October 30, 2017)^[44]

Tristan L. Leavitt

Adam Miles, Acting (June – September 2017)

(April 2011 – June 2017) – The United States Senate confirmed Carolyn Lerner as the 8th Special Counsel on April 14, 2011.^[45] Prior to her appointment as Special Counsel, Lerner was a partner in the Washington, D.C., civil rights and employment law firm Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman, where she represented individuals in discrimination and employment matters, as well as non-profit organizations on a wide variety of issues. She previously served as the federal court appointed monitor of the consent decree in Neal v. D.C. Department of Corrections, a sexual harassment and retaliation class action. Before becoming Special Counsel, Lerner taught mediation as an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School, and was mediator for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the D.C. Office of Human Rights. When she was in private practice, Lerner was featured in Best Lawyers in America, with a specialty of civil rights law, and was one of Washingtonian magazine's top employment lawyers. Lerner earned her undergraduate degree from the honors program at the University of Michigan with high distinction and was selected to be a Truman Scholar. She received a diploma in general studies from the London School of Economics, and she earned her law degree from New York University (NYU) School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Snow public interest scholar. After law school, she served for two years as a law clerk to the Honorable Julian Abele Cook, Jr., Chief U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan.^[46]

Carolyn N. Lerner

William E. Reukauf, Acting (November 2008 – April 2011). 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. 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).

[47]

(December 2003 – November 2008). On June 26, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Bloch for the position of Special Counsel at the Office of Special Counsel. The Senate unanimously confirmed Bloch on December 9, 2003. On Jan. 5, 2004, he was sworn in to serve a five-year term. 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 to 2003, 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. 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. 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.^[48]

Scott J. Bloch

(April 1998 – June 2003). 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 Bill Clinton, 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, 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 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). 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, 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. 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.^[49]

Elaine D. Kaplan

William E. Reukauf, Acting (~1997 – April 1998)

Kathleen Day Koch (December 1991 – ~1997). Prior to appointment by , 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. Koch's entire legal career has been in public service, where she has developed expertise in federal employee and government ethics issues. Prior to her 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 (1979–84), 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, 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. Koch took her J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School, graduating in 1977.^[50]

President George Herbert Walker Bush

Mary F. Weiseman (September 1986 – 1991). The third Special Counsel appointed by , 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.^[51]

Ronald Reagan

Lynn R. Collins, Acting (June 1986 – September 1986). Collins had been the Deputy Special Counsel; in the next decade he served as Special Assistant to the Regional Solicitor, U.S. Department of Interior, Sacramento, California.

K. William O'Connor (October 1982 – June 1986). The second Special Counsel appointed by , 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. 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.^[52] 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.

President Ronald Reagan

(June 1981 – August 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.

Alex Kozinski

Mary Eastwood, Acting (January 1980 – June 1981). A native of Wisconsin, 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 (1969–79) 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.

[53]

(January 1979 – December 1979). Swygert was a recess appointment by President Jimmy Carter, under an Administration whose support for the mission of Office of Special Counsel has been critiqued as lacking.

H. Patrick Swygert

Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations

Official website

in the Federal Register

Office of Special Counsel