OGC Staff

Douglas N. Letter

General Counsel

Mr. Letter joined the Office as General Counsel in January 2019. In February 2018, after a 40-year career, Mr. Letter retired from the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Director of the Civil Division Appellate Staff. During his time at the Department of Justice, he also served as Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton, as Deputy Associate Attorney General, and as Senior Counselor to the Attorney General. Immediately prior to joining the Office of General Counsel, Mr. Letter was a Senior Litigator at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Letter has presented over 200 oral arguments, including before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal appellate and district courts. He received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley Law School in 1978 and his bachelor of arts degree in American history from Columbia University in 1975.

Todd B. Tatelman

Principal Deputy General Counsel

Mr. Tatelman has served in the Office of General Counsel since November 2011. Mr. Tatelman previously served as a Legislative Attorney for the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service (2003-2011). Mr. Tatelman received bachelor of arts degrees in Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics from Boston University (2000) and his law degree, with honors, from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law (2003), where he was a member of The Catholic University Law Review.

Megan Barbero

Deputy General Counsel

Ms. Barbero joined the Office of General Counsel in March 2019. Ms. Barbero was previously a career attorney with the Civil Division Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she represented federal agencies as lead counsel and presented oral argument in most of the courts of appeals in a diverse range of civil litigation. Before joining the Department of Justice in 2014, Ms. Barbero was a counsel at WilmerHale, where she focused her practice on appellate litigation. Ms. Barbero served as a law clerk to Judge Rymer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She graduated order of the coif from Stanford Law School (2005) and magna cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree in Government (2001).

Josephine Morse

Deputy General Counsel

Ms. Morse joined the Office of General Counsel in May 2019. Ms. Morse was previously Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward Foundation, where she litigated statutory and constitutional challenges to unlawful government activity. Before that, she served as Senior Special Counsel and Counselor to the General Counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was a counsel at WilmerHale. Ms. Morse was a law clerk to the Honorable Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She graduated magna cum laude from the New York University School of Law (2006) and magna cum laude from Yale University with a bachelor of arts degree (1997).

Brooks M. Hanner

Associate General Counsel

Mr. Hanner has served in the Office of General Counsel since July 2018. Mr. Hanner was previously a Senior Associate at Hogan Lovells US LLP in Washington, D.C., where he represented clients in civil and criminal litigation, government investigations, and internal investigations since 2010. Before that, Mr. Hanner served as a law clerk to Judge Louise Flanagan of the Eastern District of North Carolina. Mr. Hanner received his law degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 2009, where he was a member of the Law Review and Order of Barristers and won the Moot Court Board Award and Best Brief in the law school’s moot court competition. He received his bachelor of science from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in 2006, majoring in Business Economics & Public Policy and International Business. Mr. Hanner has experience in a wide range of government enforcement actions, has argued and briefed cases at the trial and appellate levels, and has conducted numerous internal investigations for companies and universities.

Sally Clouse

Associate General Counsel

Ms. Clouse has served in the Office of General Counsel since July 2014. Ms. Clouse previously served as a legal fellow at the Council of the District of Columbia Office of General Counsel. She also previously served as a law clerk at the Library of Congress Office of General Counsel, the Congressional Research Service, and the District of Columbia Attorney General. Ms. Clouse received bachelor of arts degrees in both Political Science and Psychology, summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2010), and her J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School (2013), where she was a member of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal.

Will Havemann

Associate General Counsel

Mr. Havemann joined the Office of General Counsel in November 2019. He was previously a career attorney with the Civil Division’s Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he briefed and argued federal appeals involving significant questions of constitutional and administrative law. Mr. Havemann served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Amherst College.

Eric R. Columbus

Special Litigation Counsel

Mr. Columbus joined the Office of General Counsel in August 2020. His prior experience includes serving as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice and as Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security. In private practice, Mr. Columbus was a counsel at WilmerHale, where he focused his practice on Supreme Court and other appellate litigation. He also served as a counsel to Senator Joseph Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General at the Department of Justice. Mr. Columbus clerked for Judge Amalya Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and Harvard College.

Lisa K. Helvin

Special Litigation Counsel

Ms. Helvin joined the Office of General Counsel in August 2020. Ms. Helvin was previously Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and served as a member of the Commission’s Appellate Staff in its Office of General Counsel. Before joining the Commission in 2013, she was an associate at Robbins Russell. Ms. Helvin served as a law clerk to Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She graduated order of the coif from the University of Virginia Law School (2007) and from Yale University with a bachelor of arts degree (2000).

Jonathan B. Schwartz

Attorney

Mr. Schwartz joined the Office of General Counsel in June 2019. Previously, he served for more than three decades as a career attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, including as a Deputy Legal Adviser. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 1979 and clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals before joining the State Department.