President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• David Medine – Chairman, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
• Rachel L. Brand – Member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
• Patricia M. Wald – Member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

President Obama said, “I am confident that these outstanding individuals will greatly serve the American people in their new roles and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

David Medine, Nominee for Chairman, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
David Medine is a partner in the law firm WilmerHale where his practice focuses on privacy and data security, having previously served as a Senior Advisor to the White House National Economic Council from 2000 to 2001.  From 1992 to 2000, Mr. Medine was the Associate Director for Financial Practices at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where, in addition to enforcing financial privacy laws, he took the lead on Internet privacy, chaired a federal advisory committee on privacy issues, and was part of the team that negotiated a privacy safe harbor agreement with the European Union.  Before joining the FTC, Mr. Medine taught at the Indiana University (Bloomington) School of Law and the George Washington University School of Law.  Mr. Medine earned his B.A. from Hampshire College and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Rachel L. Brand, Nominee for Member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
Rachel L. Brand is currently the Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Chamber Litigation Center. Previously, Ms. Brand practiced law with the firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr.  Ms. Brand also served as Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she handled policy issues including counter-terrorism.  She also served as Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush.  Ms. Brand was a law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Justice Charles Fried of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.  She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from the University of Minnesota-Morris.

Judge Patricia M. Wald, Nominee for Member, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
Judge Patricia M. Wald served for twenty years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, from 1979 to 1999, including five years as Chief Judge.  Since that time, she has served in various capacities including as a Judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and a Member on the President's Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Prior to joining the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Court of Columbia, Judge Wald was the Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs at the Department of Justice.  She also previously worked as an attorney at the Mental Health Law Project, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, the Office of Criminal Justice at the Department of Justice, and co-director of the Ford Foundation Drug Abuse Research Project.  Judge Wald is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Philosophical Society, and serves on the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative Board.  Since July 2010, Judge Wald has been a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States.  Judge Wald clerked for the Honorable Jerome Frank on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and received her B.A. from the Connecticut College for Women and her J.D. from Yale Law School.