Font Size:

When Ivan Fong began his most recent general counsel post, he did what he has always done—he went to his "clients" and said: How can I help you do your job more effectively? His new clients, who happen to be the White House and a cabinet secretary, were pleasantly surprised.

"Apparently no one had ever asked that before in government," says Fong, the general counsel to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its chief, Secretary Janet Napolitano. But Fong had learned his philosophy of serving the client while he worked in the private sector, most recently as chief legal officer and secretary of Cardinal Health, Inc., in Dublin, Ohio.

His job at Homeland Security has very different goals from Cardinal Health, since his new unit is charged with protecting the nation from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters. Fong, who spoke this week at the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting, compared being a corporate GC with being a public sector one.

Any GC, Fong says, brings to the job his quality of legal analysis, sound judgment, strong networking, and the skill to be a trusted adviser to clients.

"The main question I get is how do you manage a law department of such size and complexity," Fong says. He oversees over 1,700 lawyers in the country's third-largest department. Many of those lawyers worked in other agencies before Homeland Security was created in 2003, when President Bush formed it by combining 22 different government agencies into one, in response to the 9/11 disaster.

It's an extremely young department, compared with, say, Treasury or Justice, which have been around since the founding of the Republic, Fong says. His early efforts have aimed to unify this diverse department into one team. To do that, he advises, "Apply what you know, learn what you need to know, and focus on leadership imperatives."

From Private to Public Sector Lawyering

There are big differences, though, between public and private sector lawyering. One, Fong says, is the degree of oversight. Rather than a board of directors and a chief executive, DHS is overseen by more than 100 congressional committees or subcommittees. "We spend a lot of time and energy responding to inquiries and preparing for hearings," Fong complains. "It diverts our energies into replying to overlapping and often inconsistent, or even contradictory, requests."

Another big change for Fong is the complexity of how government decisions are made.

"As difficult as it is in the private sector, it is a tenfold factor more difficult in government," he says. He spends a lot of time shepherding proposals through the interagency process. "It's very easy for one agency to say no and to kill a proposal," Fong adds. "And it's a minor miracle to get everyone to say yes."

Also See: 'Draconian' Measures: Top Lawyers Give Tips on Watching the Wallet (from CC)

Homeland Security includes immigration, customs, borders security, citizenship, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Coast Guard, Secret Service, and transportation security. "The 'aha' moment for me," Fong says, "was when I realized that I can't really meet all the department's lawyers across the country. But I can meet and lead their leaders, and depend on them to transmit the messages."

Beyond the anti-terrorism mission, Fong has tackled several goals. One is to make the much-maligned FEMA ready to respond to the next national disaster in a quick and organized manner, contrary to its past response to hurricane victims in New Orleans and elsewhere. He says he also recently visited the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba as he works on what to do with the terrorist suspects and detainees being held there. The Obama administration has pledged to close the facility in 2010.

And Fong says his lawyers are actively working on "smart," comprehensive immigration reform—also a stated Obama goal.

The Fight Against Complacency

Fong speaks of other challenges facing his department. "The overarching challenge as a country is complacency as we go farther from 9/11," he says. Another is cyber-security, and Fong says his department is hiring 1,000 more cyber professionals to "gear up to better protect our infrastructure."

Homeland Security also has been deeply involved in coordinating federal, state, and local responses to the H1N1 flu virus. He says the department is sharing a lot of information and guidance with the private sector because "preparedness is a shared responsibility."

Also See: Are Companies That Outsource Buying a Load of Trouble? (from CC)

Also See: How'd They Do? ACC to Introduce Client-Satisfaction Ratings of Law Firms (from CC)

Subscribe to Corporate Counsel