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Kathryn H. Ruemmler (born April 19, 1971) is an attorney who formerly served as principal deputy White House counsel and then White House Counsel to President Barack Obama.[1] Previously a partner at Latham and Watkins co-chairing its white-collar defense group,[2] Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs in 2020 as a Partner and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. In 2021, she was promoted to Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel.[3]
Kathryn Ruemmler | |
|---|---|
 | |
| White House Counsel | |
| In office June 30, 2011 – June 2, 2014 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Robert Bauer |
| Succeeded by | Neil Eggleston |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 19, 1971 Richland, Washington, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | University of Washington (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
A graduate of Richland High School in Richland, Washington,[4] Ruemmler received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Washington, and earned her Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.[5] She also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Law Journal.
Ruemmler clerked for Judge Timothy K. Lewis on the Third Circuit in 1996 and 1997 .[6] From 2000 to 2001, she served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton. She worked as a federal prosecutor from 2001 to 2007, first as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia,[7] and finishing as a deputy director of DOJ's Enron Task Force. In 2006, she delivered the government's closing argument in the trial of former Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, both of whom were convicted. Lay's conviction was overturned on October 17, 2006 due to abatement ab initio, a legal doctrine which says the death of a defendant during an appeal results in a vacated judgment.
Ruemmler returned to Latham in Washington, D.C., in 2007, this time as a partner, but left in January 2009 to serve as principal associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. She served as White House Counsel from 2011 to 2014, and then again returned to Latham. In 2020, Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs as a partner. She currently serves as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel; she was previously Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. She serves on the firmwide Management Committee.[8]
While she was employed as a partner at Latham and Watkins, Ruemmler met with Jeffrey Epstein on dozens of occasions including lunches and dinners between her time in the White House and her subsequent hiring at Goldman Sachs, according to his schedule, The Wall Street Journal reported. She was also on his schedule for a flight to Paris in 2015, as well as a stop at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017; she said these trips did not take place and The Wall Street Journal could not confirm that they or other meetings ultimately happened.[9] She said: "I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein."[9][10]
White House counsel
In October 2011, Ruemmler said there was no evidence of the White House intervening in Solyndra's loan guarantee to benefit a campaign donor. Her letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee also denies an effort by committee Republicans for access to internal White House communications. The letter goes on to deny Republican claims of improper White House influence in the Energy Department's 2009 decision to grant the company a $535 million loan guarantee, and the deal's early 2011 revamp that put private investors ahead of taxpayers for repayment if the company liquidated.[11]
Over what would have traditionally been the 2011-2012 winter recess of the 112th Congress, the House of Representatives did not assent to recess, specifically to block Richard Cordray's appointment as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.[12] As a result, both the House and Senate held pro forma sessions.[13] On January 4, 2012, President Obama claimed authority to appoint Richard Cordray and others under the Recess Appointments Clause. Counsel Ruemmler asserted that the appointments were valid, because the pro forma sessions were designed to, "through form, render a constitutional power of the executive obsolete," and that the Senate was for all intents and purposes recessed.[14] Republicans in the Senate disputed the appointments, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stating that Obama had "arrogantly circumvented the American people" and endangered "the Congress's role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch." It was expected that there would be a legal challenge to the appointments.[15]
On January 6, 2012, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion regarding recess appointments and pro forma sessions, stating that "[t]he convening of periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is to be conducted does not have the legal effect of interrupting an intrasession recess otherwise long enough to qualify as a 'Recess of the Senate' under the Recess Appointments Clause. In this context, the President therefore has discretion to conclude that the Senate is unavailable to perform its advise-and-consent function and to exercise his power to make recess appointments."[16][17]
After National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius was decided in favor of the Obama administration on 28 June 2012, Ruemmler was the one to tell Obama and his chief of staff, Jack Lew, that the administration's signature Obamacare legislation had actually been upheld.[18]
In a profile by the Washington Post, it was reported that during negotiations over John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director, according to a White House official, it was Ruemmler who decided that the House and Senate intelligence panels could review the e-mails about different drafts of the Benghazi talking points without letting them take copies. The administration shifted course this month by releasing the e-mails after weeks of controversy over their content.[19]
She announced that she would be stepping down as White House Counsel in mid-May 2014.[20] She returned to private practice in July 2014.[21]
In September 2014, when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Ruemmler was speculated as being a potential candidate as the next United States Attorney General.[22][23] She withdrew from consideration the following month, amid speculation that she would have faced a "difficult confirmation process" because of her close friendship with President Obama.[24]
FINRA
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Design firm Ashe Leandro created a line of furniture named after her, called "Ruemmler."[26] She is a client of the firm, and the line contains piecemeal elements made of wood (often, French Oak), leather, silk, and steel.[26][27][28]
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