Saturday, July 31, 2010
Unlike most Obama administration appointees, Michael R. Bromwich won’t merely be asked to run his new agency—but completely reshape it while resurrecting the federal government’s reputation for regulating oil and gas leases. Bromwich also is unlike previous heads of the Minerals Management Service—which is in the process of being subdivided into new agencies—in that he has no experience or ties to the industry. Bromwich was sworn in as director of the renamed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement on June 21, 2010.
A native of California born December 19, 1953, Bromwich attended college at Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude (1976), law degree (1980) and master’s degree in public policy (1980).
After law school, Bromwich became an associate in the Washington, DC, office of the law firm Foley & Lardner. In 1983, he took a job as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. During his four years there, he rose to become chief of the narcotics unit and argued before the Second Circuit Federal Court of Appeals.
In 1987, Bromwich was assigned a high-profile job with the Office of Independent Counsel investigating the Iran-Contra scandal. He supervised the Contra half of the investigation, and was one of three courtroom lawyers who prosecuted Oliver North. North was convicted of three charges, but the decisions were overturned because he had been granted immunity.
After the conclusion of the trial in 1989, Bromwich went into private practice as a partner at Mayer, Brown and Platt. He specialized in defending individuals and corporations accused of white-collar crimes, such as export violations.
In 1994, Bromwich returned to government service when he joined the Clinton administration as inspector general of the Department of Justice. He carried out special investigations of the FBI to examine allegations of incompetence and misconduct at the bureau’s laboratory and to review the FBI’s conduct in the Aldrich Ames spy case.
In 1999, Bromwich returned to private practice, this time as a litigation partner at the Washington, DC, and New York offices of the law firm Fried Frank. During his 10 years there, he led the firm’s internal investigations, compliance and monitoring practice.
He was also hired by the District of Columbia in 2002 to investigate its police department, especially improper use of force and civil-rights issues, and by the city of Houston in 2008 to investigate its police crime lab.
As the new head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, Bromwich will be tasked with dividing the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Agency into three parts.
Bromwich donated $4,500 to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Michael R. Bromwich (WhoRunsGov)
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