William H. Kennedy III is an American lawyer from

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, who served as Associate

White House Counsel The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...

during the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

Law career

He served as a senior partner in the

Rose Law Firm Rose Law Firm is an American law firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. It dates its origins to November 1, 1820, sixteen years before Arkansas statehood, when Robert Crittenden, born 1797, and Chester Ashley, born 1791, entered into an ...

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, with

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, where he focused on commercial, corporate, real estate, and banking law.

Clinton administration

From 1993 until 1995, he served as Associate Counsel to President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

before returning to Little Rock. Two other Rose Law Firm partners,

Vince Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Littl ...

and Webb Hubbell, also joined the Clinton administration, but Kennedy was the only one to return to Little Rock without a scandal. On May 13, 1993, Kennedy met with agents of the US

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) at the White House, where he asked them to investigate Billy Dale, who had been fired from the White House travel office staff. The agents hesitated investigating Dale, saying that there was insufficient evidence to justify an investigation, but they agreed to investigate after Kennedy told them that he would turn to the US

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

(IRS) for help if they didn't investigate. Republican Party opponents of the Clintons alleged that Kennedy pressured the agents. A White House internal review criticized Kennedy's actions. On July 20, 1993, Kennedy and Craig Livingstone went to the Fairfax Hospital where he positively identified the body of Vince Foster, his friend and

who had committed suicide. In March 1994, it was revealed that Kennedy had failed to pay Social Security taxes for his nanny. Clinton's chief of staff

Mack McLarty Thomas Franklin "Mack" McLarty, III (born June 14, 1946) is an American business and political leader who served as President Bill Clinton's first White House Chief of Staff from 1993 to June 1994, and subsequently as Counselor to the Presiden ...

and White House Counsel

Lloyd Cutler Lloyd Norton Cutler (November 10, 1917 – May 8, 2005) was an American attorney who served as White House Counsel during the Democratic administrations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Early life and education Cutler was born ...

relieved Kennedy of some of his duties as Associate White House Counsel including reviewing tax-compliance matters or security clearances. In December 1995, the US

Senate Special Whitewater Committee The Senate Whitewater Committee, officially the Special Committee to Investigate Whitewater Development Corporation and Related Matters, was a special committee convened by the United States Senate during the Clinton administration to investigate t ...

, which was investigating Bill Clinton and

Madison Guaranty Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association was a savings and loan association based in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company operated from 1979 until 1989 when it was shut down by federal regulators as a result of bank failure, leading to a loss o ...

, subpoenaed notes taken by Kennedy during a meeting at

Williams & Connolly Williams & Connolly LLP is an American law firm based in Washington, D.C. The firm was founded by trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams in collaboration with Paul Connolly, a former student of his. Williams left the partnership of D.C. firm Hog ...

on November 5, 1993 with

David E. Kendall David Evan Kendall (born May 2, 1944) is an American attorney, a graduate of Wabash College, Yale Law School, and Worcester College, Oxford, who clerked with Supreme Court Justice Byron White, worked as associate counsel at the NAACP Legal Defe ...

Bernard Nussbaum Bernard William Nussbaum (March 23, 1937 – March 13, 2022) was an American attorney, best known for having served as White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton. Background Nussbaum, the first child of Jewish immigrants from Poland, was ...

Bruce Lindsey Bruce R. Lindsey (born 1950/51) is an American lawyer and non-profit executive. He served in the White House during the Presidency of Bill Clinton. He was named in a lawsuit during the Whitewater controversy, and he testified before a grand jur ...

, and other lawyers for Clinton. Kennedy asserted

attorney–client privilege Attorney–client privilege or lawyer–client privilege is the name given to the common law concept of legal professional privilege in the United States. Attorney–client privilege is " client's right to refuse to disclose and to prevent any ...

as a reason not to hand over the notes. However the White House eventually handed over the notes sought by the Senate. In 1996

Judicial Watch Judicial Watch (JW) is an American conservative activist group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate claimed misconduct by government officials. Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particu ...

filed a lawsuit on behalf former members of the Bush administration and Reagan administration against Kennedy, Craig Livingstone, and Anthony Marceca alleging that they read their personal white house files. However the suit was dismissed.

Post political career

After leaving Washington, Kennedy returned to Little Rock and was again employed by the

. In 2001 Kennedy represented Charles Wilfred Morgan, who received a federal pardon from President Clinton after having been convicted of conspiracy to distribute

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

in the 1980s. In 2001 President Clinton appointed Kennedy to the board of directors of the Student Loan Marketing Association, commonly known as Sallie Mae. Kennedy was a member of the Dean's Executive Advisory Board and the Arkansas Executive forum of the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

Walton College of Business Administration. He was voted Attorney of the Year by VOCALS, a

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 ...

legal services organization in Arkansas. He was also president of the Downtown

Kiwanis Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. Since 1987, the organizati ...

Club of Little Rock.

Family

His father, William H. Kennedy Jr. (1917–1991), a former

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Marine Corps officer and aide to President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, was the first Arkansan to become president of the

American Bankers Association The American Bankers Association (ABA) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the U.S. banking industry, founded in 1875. They lobby for banks of all sizes and charters, including community banks, regional and money center banks, sav ...

in 1981. Kennedy was married to Leslie Gail until late 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, William H. III Lawyers from Little Rock, Arkansas Clinton administration personnel Living people Year of birth missing (living people)