Elizabeth Merrill "Lisa" Brown (born March 6, 1960) is an American lawyer who is the current General Counsel of the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

. She previously served as the first

White House Staff Secretary The Staff Secretary ("Staff Sec") is a position in the White House Office responsible for managing paper flow to the President and circulating documents among senior staff for comment. It has been referred to as "the nerve center of the White H ...

in the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

, assuming that post on January 20, 2009. Earlier, during the 2008–2009 presidential transition, she served as Co-Chair of Agency Review. Prior to joining the Obama Transition Team, she served as Executive Director of the

American Constitution Society The American Constitution Society (ACS) is a progressive legal organization. ACS was created as a counterweight to, and is modeled after, the Federalist Society, and is often described as its progressive counterpart. Founded in 2001 following t ...

, a progressive legal organization. After

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

2011 State of the Union Address The 2011 State of the Union Address was given by the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, on January 25, 2011, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 112th United States Congress. It w ...

, Brown joined the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

to assist the ambitious effort to draft a government reorganization proposal. In March 2013, she left the White House to become chief legal counsel to

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

as Vice President and General Counsel.

Early life and education

Brown was born in Washington, D.C. and attended the prestigious

Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational University-preparatory school#North America, preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It i ...

Lakeville, Connecticut Lakeville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, close to Dutchess County, New York. It is within the town of Salisbury, but has its own ZIP Code (06039). As of the 2010 census, the population of Lak ...

. A 1982 Magna Cum Laude

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

graduate with a B.A. in Political Economy, Brown earned a J.D. degree with Honors from the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...

in 1986. She then clerked on the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following U.S. district courts: * Middle District of Alabama * Northern District of Alabama * ...

for Judge

John Cooper Godbold John Cooper Godbold (March 24, 1920 – December 22, 2009) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Education and career Born ...

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, and she held a one-year fellowship as a Staff Attorney at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

.
ACS Brown Bio

Private sector and pro bono work

Before entering government service, Brown was a Partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm

Shea & Gardner Shea & Gardner was a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, formed in 1947 and acquired by Boston-based Goodwin Procter in 2004. Founding and clients The firm was founded by two Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration officials, Francis M. Shea and ...

; while litigating and doing transactional work for the firm's paying clients, she also had a substantial

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

practice focusing on disability issues, civil rights and social justice. She wrote briefs in the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

and federal circuit courts in disability cases under The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. She also reviewed appeals by rejected claimants in Dyson v. Denny's, Inc. (D. Md.), serving as the court-appointed Special Master. She was co-editor for the

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless (also known as WLCH or The Legal Clinic) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization providing ''pro bono'' legal services to those in the District affected by lack of housing and other housing ...

of ''Cold, Harsh and Unending Resistance: The District of Columbia Government's Hidden War Against Its Poor and Its Homeless'' (November 22, 1993), a report on social services litigation.

Clinton administration

Brown joined the

(ACS) in 2002, coming from Relman & Associates, a Washington, DC, civil rights firm. She had previously worked for

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

as Counsel (1999 through January 2001) and Deputy Counsel (April 1997 through August 1999). Her work included not only handling legal matters but also advising the Vice President on civil rights and various domestic policy issues. She also served on the Executive Board of the

President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities Executive Order 10555, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 23, 1954, established a Seal for the ''President's Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped''. The Committee was succeeded by the President's Committee on Empl ...

. Before joining the Vice President's office, she was an Attorney Advisor in the Department of Justice's

Office of Legal Counsel The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General's position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies. It drafts legal opinions of the Attorney ...

(June 1996 to April 1997).

Personal life

On January 3, 1998, Brown married a Kevin Cullen, an oncologist who directs the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

's cancer center. They have one son.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Lisa 1960 births 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers American activists Georgetown University people Hotchkiss School alumni Living people Obama administration personnel Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Princeton University alumni University of Chicago Law School alumni Washington, D.C., Democrats White House Staff Secretaries United States Department of Education officials