Washington Government Relations & Public Policy

• The White House
• Fred F. Fielding—former counsel to Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush, former deputy counsel to President Nixon, and commissioner of the National Commission on Terrorists Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission)—leads our Washington practice.

Mr. Fielding is an internationally known attorney, counselor, strategic advisor, litigator, and mediator. He focuses his practice on corporate services, government affairs, and crisis management, and provides general counseling to corporate and individual clients on a broad array of legal and policy issues. Backed by a bench of 90-plus former prosecutors and other regulatory attorneys, Mr. Fielding leads a multidisciplinary group of lawyers in handling our clients' most critical areas of concern. The group is well versed at managing competing objectives and minimizing risk while working in the public spotlight. Through their prior work in government, as well as at the firm, our attorneys are skilled in preparing and representing witnesses in congressional hearings or investigations. For example, Allyson Ho, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, regularly represents clients in government investigations and other adversarial settings outside of formal litigation proceedings. She also has litigated successfully in the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal and state intermediate courts of appeals nationwide.

• U.S. Department of Justice
• John Shenefield, Ronald J. Tenpas—both former high-ranking Justice Department attorneys whose collective experience spans such areas as competition law, environment, securities, healthcare, and tax—anchor a significant part of our practice devoted to matters involving the DOJ and its myriad areas of focus.

Because the DOJ has an overarching role in nearly every matter involving enforcement, and in matters in which changes to statutes or regulations are being sought, Morgan Lewis has continued to build a diverse team of former senior-level headquarters officials, former U.S. Attorneys, and other lawyers with Justice Department backgrounds. This team supports our Congressional and Independent Commission Investigations, White Collar Litigation and Government Investigations, and Securities Litigation and Enforcement practices, and enables us to equip clients with attorneys who have the insight and specific background required to handle any matter involving the Justice Department at any level.

• U.S. Department of Justice - Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD)
• Ronald J. Tenpas, former Assistant Attorney General, ENRD; former Associate Deputy Attorney General; former United States Attorney, Southern District of Illinois
• Michael Steinberg, former Assistant Chief of the Environmental Defense Section, ENRD

Mr. Tenpas and our team of other government agency alumni and environmental attorneys provide clients with important historical perspective on evolving environmental public and legislative policy, coupled with an understanding of a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, chemicals, energy, transportation, real estate, and retail, among others.

The Environmental Practice utilizes this combination of background to prevent or address compliance issues, environmental crises, enforcement actions, and civil or criminal litigation. We also provide strategic guidance in transactions, on securing permits and government approvals for various projects, and on challenges related to climate change. We closely monitor regulatory and legislative developments, acting as counsel to three cross-industry trade organizations that focus on EPA rulemakings, guidance, and policy statements under, respectively, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund).

In addition to producing rulemaking comments and handling litigation challenges, we frequently provide clients with crucial updates and analyses on major regulatory and legislative developments.

• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
• Jay M. Gutierrez, former Regional Counsel, Region I
• Karen D. Cyr, former General Counsel, 1994-2009

• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
• George Billinson, former senior enforcement attorney

Led by Mr. Gutierrez, our Energy team represents clients before FERC, the SEC, the NRC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), state public utility commissions, other federal and state agencies, and federal and state courts. We handle investigations and other regulatory compliance matters, strategic planning and corporate restructuring, complex and traditional debt and equity securities issuances, transmission access, energy marketing, and trading and ratemaking. We also assist our cleantech and renewable energy clients, as well as those outside the cleantech space, with capitalizing on government funding programs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

• U.S. Department of Labor
• Jonathan L. Snare, former Deputy Solicitor of Labor; former acting head of OSHA

• National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
• Chuck Cohen, former member, executive, and staff attorney

Mr. Snare, Mr. Cohen, and Complex Litigation Practice Chair Grace Speights—who regularly interfaces with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for clients—are among the nearly 50 attorneys in the firm's Washington, D.C. office focusing on labor, employment, and workforce issues. Ours is the largest labor and employment practice in the region.

We regularly represent and advise employers on all aspects of labor and employment law related to the DOL, the NLRB, the EEOC, and other federal agencies. This breadth of practice lends our clients the capacity to monitor, anticipate, assess, and respond to issues from Congress, the federal agencies, and the White House, including matters such as labor law reform and the impact of national healthcare policy changes, both of which can have impacts on the collective bargaining process.

Along with our senior Labor Department and NLRB alumni, the team includes a former Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a former senior policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary for the Employment Standards Administration (within the DOL), and a former Deputy Director of the Office of Contract Compliance Programs, among other former government lawyers.

• DHHS, Office of Counsel to the Health and Human Services Inspector General
• Howard J. Young, former senior attorney and deputy branch chief

Along with Mr. Young, Joyce Cowan—who has worked for more than 20 years assisting healthcare organizations before Congress and the Executive Branch—and Kathleen Sanzo, leader of the firm's FDA and Healthcare Practice, provide clients with critical guidance on product development and approvals as well as the full range of compliance matters in the healthcare products and services industries.

Ms. Cowan focuses a major part of her practice on assisting clients with monitoring, influencing, and interpreting federal healthcare rules and regulations, congressional legislation, and Executive Branch policy. One of the largest combined FDA and healthcare practices in the nation, the group is well equipped to analyze evolving developments rapidly and provide clients with timely guidance critical to their business objectives.

• U.S. Department of the Treasury
• Daniel L. Hogans, advisor in the Office of Benefits Tax Counsel

We closely follow the developments at the Treasury and IRS—as well as the DOJ's Tax Division—and we regularly appear before these agencies to obtain private letter rulings or to seek changes in published guidance on behalf of our clients. We advise clients in crisis with the IRS and have litigated a variety of tax disputes in the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and federal district and appellate courts. Our team includes numerous other former tax agency attorneys, among them David Fuller, a former manager in the IRS's Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities); Daniel L. Hogans, former advisor in the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Benefits Tax Counsel; and Mary (Handy) Hevener, a former attorney advisor for the Treasury Department's Office of the Tax Legislative Counsel. Mr. Hogans, Mr. Fuller, and Ms. Hevener, along with other former government officials, are members of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice.

• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Christian J. Mixter, former Chief Litigation Counsel, Division of Enforcement
• Linda L. Griggs, former Chief Counsel to the Chief Accountant; former member, SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting
• John F. Hartigan, former Branch Chief and Assistant Director of the Division of Enforcement
• George C. Yearsich, former Special Counsel to SEC Chairman
• David A. Sirignano, former Associate Director for International Corporate Finance in the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance

Mr. Mixter, Ms. Griggs, Mr. Hartigan, Mr. Yearsich, and Mr. Sirignano are part of the multidisciplinary team representing some of the world’s largest firms and financial institutions, as well as their senior executives and other employees, in regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings conducted by the SEC and other government agencies such as the DOJ, all major self-regulatory organizations including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and state securities commissions.

We also represent public companies and their senior executives in SEC investigations and enforcement proceedings, including those focusing on accounting issues and insider trading. Our interdisciplinary approach to counseling clients combines lawyers familiar with the federal and state securities laws, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code, commodities regulation, federal and state banking and insurance laws, and foreign securities laws.

• U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division
• John Shenefield, former Associate Attorney General of the United States; former Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division
• Jonathan M. Rich, former Assistant Chief, Communications & Finance Section

• Federal Trade Commission
• Thomas J. Lang, former senior litigation counsel, Bureau of Competition

Mr. Shenefield, Mr. Rich, and Mr. Lang, along with Antitrust Practice leader Scott Stempel, leverage their agency-insider backgrounds serving clients in a wide range of industries to provide practical, precise guidance on competition issues. These matters include mergers and acquisitions, criminal price-fixing investigations, and civil conduct investigations.

Morgan Lewis attorneys are knowledgeable about the industries they represent and have command of related legal issues. The firm also utilizes its international resources and thorough understanding of enforcement agency processes to guide clients in the entire spectrum of domestic and international antitrust matters.