Veteran D.C. Lawyer in the GC Spot at Georgetown

Lisa Shuchman

Corporate Counsel

03-11-2013

Georgetown University has tapped Lisa Brown, a former senior government official, to serve as the university’s vice president and general counsel. In her new role at the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, Brown is expected to address issues related to globalization and the role of technology at the university, as well as focus on the school’s campus master plan.

Brown was until recently the federal government’s acting chief performance officer at the Office of Management and Budget. Previously, she worked in the White House as staff secretary for President Barack Obama—a role that made her the gatekeeper for every piece of paper that reached his desk and prompted the web site Muckety.com to call her “one of the more powerful behind-the-scenes players in the Obama administration.”

The 53-year-old attorney has spent most of her career in the nation’s capital. She worked in senior White House roles during President Bill Clinton’s administration, including four years as deputy counsel, then as counsel, to Vice President Al Gore.

Brown, who earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and received a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, clerked for Judge John Cooper Godboldon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Montgomery, Alabama. Early in her career she also held a one-year fellowship as a staff attorney at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles.

Before her first stint in government, Brown was a partner at Shea & Gardner (now Goodwin Procter) in Washington, D.C., where she was known for an active pro bono practice that focused on disability issues. She has had a considerable career in the not-for-profit sector, serving as executive director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, a progressive legal organization based in Washington. She also worked at D.C. civil rights firm Relman & Associates after leaving Vice President Gore’s office and before joining ACS.

Brown took up her new post at the beginning of March. She replaces Stephanie Tsacoumis, who is now general counsel of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.