Ernest B. Abbott
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Ernest B. Abbott
Ernest Abbott is one of the nation's leading authorities on the legal aspects of federal disaster relief, flood, and emergency management programs. Recently ending a four-year term as General Counsel for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mr. Abbott specializes in all FEMA program-related laws and regulations.
Mr. Abbott came to FEMA in 1997 after two decades as a lawyer specializing in regulated infrastructure industries- from both the public- and private-sector perspectives. At FEMA, Mr. Abbott extended his deep understanding of federal regulation into the nation's many programs that seek to prevent losses from natural and non-natural disasters, and to assist those suffering from major disaster losses. He came to recognize that a fundamental need for guidance and support exists both in the disaster relief community and among the organizations that seek FEMA assistance. After leaving FEMA in 2001, Mr. Abbott opened a legal practice specializing in federal disaster law-including its mitigation, preparedness, insurance, disaster grant, and regulatory programs-to meet this need.
Mr. Abbott provides an "insider's perspective" of FEMA's programs that helps his clients identify the key legal issues that drive agency decision making. He has a reputation for providing high- quality, effective disaster relief and emergency management legal services to government agencies and public and private organizations.
Accomplishments at a Glance
Since leaving FEMA, Mr. Abbott has represented clients on FEMA issues in a number of different contexts. He provides general regulatory representation before FEMA on behalf of a trade association whose members are affected by proposed FEMA regulations implementing the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. He advises clients on FEMA eligibility rules and restrictions and identifies strategies to overcome potential legal barriers to their receipt of disaster assistance funding. He has helped prepare appeals from adverse eligibility determinations. He has also helped vendors to the emergency management community develop contract structures that ensure that emergency management services provided to state and local governments are eligible for FEMA grant assistance. In 2002, The American Bar Association's State and Local Government Law Section named Mr. Abbott Chair of its new Task Force on Emergency Management and Homeland Security. As FEMA General Counsel from 1997 - 2001, Mr. Abbott was among the handful of agency leaders with responsibilities covering all FEMA programs, including disaster and mitigation grant programs, flood insurance programs, national security preparedness programs, and chemical stockpile and radiological preparedness programs. During his FEMA tenure, Mr. Abbott reviewed all FEMA regulatory actions and proposals, managed interagency regulatory coordination for FEMA, and directed the legal review of all final agency appeal decisions. FEMA's regulatory and appellate agenda focused on the agency's key ongoing challenges: treatment of repetitive loss structures, duplication of benefits created by insurance coverage and other assistance programs, debris removal contracting, building codes and standards, and the scope of authority to fund structural improvements during restoration. After the Cerro Grande fire in May 2000, Mr. Abbott led the regulatory development of a $500 million FEMA compensation program arising from wildfire damage in the Los Alamos, New Mexico region.
Mr. Abbott dedicated particular attention to strengthening FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program, which pays roughly $1 billion claims annually for flood losses. He managed an integrated litigation defense and regulatory
Mr. Abbott has considerable related experience in the energy and environmental industries. He served for more than 10 years as a managing legal and regulatory executive at Tenneco Energy, and for six years as a senior attorney adviser in both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Interstate Commerce Commission. He began his career at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where his principal assignments focused on antitrust and energy issues. An accomplished and audience-friendly speaker, Mr. Abbott frequently gives training sessions and presentations, sharing his knowledge of the intricacies and depth of disaster relief assistance and offering guidance on maximizing benefits from all possible funding sources. Mr. Abbott holds a law degree from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude, 1976), a master of public policy degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (1976), and a bachelor of arts degree from Swarthmore College (high honors, 1972). Mr. Abbott is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia, the State of Texas, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Gary Bass
Gary D. Bass is the Founder and Executive Director of OMB Watch, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that promotes increased citizen participation in public policy and greater government accountability. Dr. Bass has testified before Congress, appeared on national television, addressed groups across the country, and written extensively on federal budgetary, program management, regulatory and information policy issues.
Dr. Bass is well known for assisting nonprofit organizations in better understanding federal rules affecting their organizations and constituencies and was recently selected as one of the Nonprofit Times Power and Influence Top 50. He has led campaigns to preserve the advocacy voice of nonprofits, make federal government a more open and accountable operation, and insure meaningful citizen participation in government decision-making. He has been an active supporter of right-to-know initiatives, encouraging the government to make information publicly accessible in order to empower its citizens. He has also undertaken initiatives to insure that, as we move into the information age, we do not create a society of information haves and have nots.
In 1989, he created RTK NET (the Right-to-Know Network), a free online computer service to provide community groups with access to government data. More than 3,000 people now use RTK NET to get access to government data about toxic chemicals, census, housing demographics, home mortgage activity, and campaign finances. He has been a pioneer in identifying ways in which the information superhighway can be a tool for those working in the public interest sector.
During 1995, Dr. Bass led OMB Watch in challenging a number of provisions in the Contract with America, and successfully formed a number of coalitions that stopped proposals that would have undermined our society's safety net. Working with organizations representing working men and women, as well as those representing environmental, educational, civil rights, human needs, religious, consumer and other public interest concerns, he stopped: a "no money, no mandates" measure that would have resulted in state and local governments being exempted from complying with federal laws, such as fair labor standards, civil rights protections, and voter registration laws; a constitutional amendment to balance the U.S. budget that would have seriously harmed human service delivery in this country; a variety of regulatory provisions that would have undermined health, safety, and environmental protections and safeguards; and an effort to silence the advocacy voice of charities across the country.
Over the years, Dr. Bass has stressed the importance of educating community groups about federal issues. He has led many nationwide briefings on issues ranging from changes in human services programs during the Reagan Administration to balanced budget initiatives, to issues pertaining to the advocacy voice of the nonprofit sector. He has also employed the use of e-mail to establish two-way communication with community groups on these issues.
Previously, Dr. Bass was President of the Human Services Information Center, where he wrote two books and numerous articles on human services issues, and published the Human Services INSIDER, a bimonthly newsletter on the politics of federal human services program;
In earlier years, Dr. Bass was Director of Liaison for the International Year of Disabled Persons; worked as a consultant on several projects in special education and the mental health of children, youth, most notably, the preparation of the first annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142); served as Special Assistant to Wilbur Cohen, then chair of the Michigan Governor's Task Force on the Investigation and Prevention of Abuse in Residential Institutions; and was involved in juvenile justice and community corrections.
Dr. Bass received a combined doctorate in psychology and education from The University of Michigan, along with the University's highest award for graduate student teaching and several awards for academic excellence.
Christopher Drew
Christopher Drew is an award-winning investigative reporter and special projects editor at The New York Times. He also is co-author of the best-selling book, “Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.”
Mr. Drew has been a journalist for more than 25 years and has spent much of his career in New York and Washington. He has won several major awards from the White House Correspondents’ Association and other press organizations.
His investigative work has covered a wide range of subjects, from political scandals in Washington to terrorism after 9/11. Based on hundreds of interview, “Blind Man’s Bluff” reveals how U.S. and Soviet submarines fought a vast, undeclared and sometimes chillingly violent war under the sea in search of intelligence information and nuclear advantage.
Mr. Drew, 47, joined the Times in 1995 after reporting from Washington for the Chicago Tribune for nearly a decade. He also has worked for The Wall Street Journal and for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
A native of New Orleans, Mr. Drew graduated magna cm laude from Tulane Universiyt. His wife Annette Lawrence Drew, has a doctorate from Princeton and was the main researcher for “Blind Man’s Bluff.” They live in Montclair, N.J., with their daughter Celia. Thomas Madden
Thomas Madden is a partner in the Washington Office of Venable LLP where he chairs the Government Contracts Practice Group. He is a past chairman of the American Bar Association Section of Public Contract Law and a Past President of the Court of Federal Claims Bar Association. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Madden was for many years General Counsel of the Department of Justice’s Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, now the Office of Justice Programs. He is the author of numerous papers and articles. Most recently, he is the coauthor of the two chapters of the upcoming Mathew Bender “Homeland Security Deskbook” which deal with a contracts, grants and other agreements.
Professor Jim O’Reilly
Professor Jim O'Reilly of the University of Cincinnati is Vice-Chair of the Homeland Security Committee and of the Government Information & Privacy Committee. He was Section Chair in 1996-97. He is the author of West's Federal Information Disclosure and of Bender's forthcoming Homeland Security Deskbook, and has in the past served as consultant on FOIA to the Administrative Conference and the Federal Trade Commission.
Tom Susman
Tom Susman is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Ropes & Gray, where he conducts a diverse legislative and regulatory practice.
Tom handles legislative matters on behalf of both large and small clients – businesses, trade associations, and nonprofit organizations – in a variety of industries. He has been active in seeking enactment of legislation, in obtaining appropriations for specific projects, in blocking or amending legislative proposals, and in counseling targets of congressional investigations. Typical projects have involved homeland security, energy, tax code amendments, regulatory reform, intellectual property protection, environmental protection, access to government information, Native American issues, and antitrust law reform.
Tom's regulatory practice extends to a wide variety of matters, including freedom of information and privacy issues, healthcare, energy efficiency, maritime safety, and regulation of organ procurement. He also counsels clients on antitrust and trade regulation matters, with an emphasis in the health care area, and represents clients responding to federal and state antitrust investigations.
Before joining Ropes & Gray in 1981, Tom served on Capitol Hill for over 11 years. He was Chief Counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure and General Counsel to the Antitrust Subcommittee and to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prior to that he clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and was Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice. He graduated from Yale University and received his J.D. with high honors from the University of Texas Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Texas Law Review.
Tom is in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, is past chairman of the ABA Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section, and served on the Board of Governors of the ABA. He is President of the D.C. Public Library Foundation, a Trustee of the National Judicial College, and on the Board of the National Conference on Citizenship. He is also on the Advisory Counsel of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, on the Advisory Boards of the National Security Archive and the NFIB Legal Foundation, and a member of the American Law Institute. Tom is chair of the Ethics Committee of the American League of Lobbyists, is a principal contributor to the ABA’s Lobbying Manual (1993), and coauthored the BNA Portfolio on “Business Uses of the Freedom of Information Act. He teaches Lobbying and Legislative Process at the American University’s Washington College of Law, has frequently been called upon to testify before Congress, and has consulted with the governments of Shanghai, China and Peru on open government information and lobbying disclosure laws.
Education 1967, University of Texas School of Law, J.D., high honors
1964, Yale University, Undergraduate
Joe D. Whitley
Joe Whitley is the General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. He was confirmed by the Senate in July 2003 and was sworn in to become the Department's first General Counsel on August 1, 2003
Mr. Whitley serves as the chief legal adviser to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As General Counsel of the Department, he and his staff help assure that Departmental activities fully comply with all legal requirements and that the Department's efforts to secure the nation and to protect the civil rights and liberties of our citizens.
Mr. Whitley is responsible for integrating 1,500 lawyers from 22 different agencies into a cohesive, full service legal division. As the chief legal officer of the Department, Mr. Whitley oversees the work of lawyers in virtually all DHS Directorates and component agencies, such as the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, Border & Transportation Security, Emergency Preparedness and Response, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Information Analysis & Infrastructure Protection, Transportation Security Administration, and Science and Technology.
Mr. Whitley served as Associate Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush, as well being the only Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney ever to be appointed in two different federal judicial districts. Under President Reagan, he was the U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Georgia in Macon, and under President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Whitley served as the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta.
Prior to joining the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Whitley was a partner at Alston & Bird, where he served as head of its Government Enforcement & Investigations Group, his practice concentrating on government investigations, environmental and health care fraud and complex civil litigation.
Mr. Whitley is a former member of the Criminal Justice Section Council of the American Bar Association. He served as Vice Chair for Governmental Affairs of the 2002-03 ABA Criminal Justice Section. He also chaired annual seminars and institutes for Georgia ICLE on White Collar Crime, Health Care Fraud, and Cybercrime.
Lynne K. Zusman Practice Areas: Federal Regulatory Law; Administrative Litigation; Governmental Law; Whistleblower Litigation; Employment Law; White Collar Criminal Defense; Business Fraud; Contract Disputes; Executive Compensation; Wrongful Termination; Corporate Investigations; Congressional Investigations; Family Law; Divorce; Visitation; Marital Property.
Admitted: 1964, California; 1974, U.S. Supreme Court; 1977, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; 1979, District of Columbia; 1984, Virginia, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia and U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit; 1987, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; 1990, Maryland and U.S. District Court, District of Maryland
Law School: Yale University, LL.B., 1962.
College: Bryn Mawr College, A.B., cum laude with honors in Political Science, 1959.
Member: The District of Columbia Bar; Maryland State, Federal and American (Council, 2000- 2002; Chair, Department of Homeland Security; Chair, Defense and National Security, 1996- 2000; Co-Chair, 2002—; Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section; A.B.A. Advisory Committee to Standing Committee on Law and National Security, 1986-1996, 2002—; Board of Governors, Maryland Chapter, Federal Bar Association, 1992—) Bar Associations; Virginia State Bar; State Bar of California.
Biography: Research Assistant, Assistant to the Dean, Stanford Law School, 1962-1967. Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice: Criminal Division, Appellate Section, 1974-1976, Civil Division; Freedom of Information and Privacy Section, 1976-1977; Chief, 1977-1979, Special Litigation Counsel, 1979. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia, 1979-1981. Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1981-1983. Vice President and General Counsel, Allegheny Beverage Corporation, 1983-1984. Treasurer, Yale Law School Washington Club, 1989-1990. Member, Board of Directors, American Jewish Congress (National Capital Region), 1992-1994. General Counsel, Council for the Community of Democracies, Washington, D.C., 2001—.
Born: New York, N.Y., March 27, 1939.