Fireside Chat: Farewell to the Department of Education?

Lisa Brown is a Partner at Wilmer Hale. As a former general counsel of the US Department of Education (DOE) and vice president and general counsel of Georgetown University, she leverages nearly 40 years of legal experience in the public and private sectors to guide institutions of higher education and their boards through administrative compliance, government investigations, congressional inquiries and public scrutiny. She is a partner in the firm’s Education Practice and Crisis Management and Strategic Response Group. During Ms. Brown’s tenure at the DOE, she oversaw a team of over 100 lawyers and provided legal advice to the secretary of education and senior DOE officials on issues relating to DOE initiatives, policies, regulations, litigation and business operations, including advising on public communications and responses to Congress. 

As the vice president and general counsel at Georgetown University, Ms. Brown provided legal counsel to Georgetown’s president, board of directors, and senior academic and administrative officers on the panoply of issues facing the university, served in the President’s cabinet, and mentored first-generation college students and students interested in law and social justice.  

Ms. Brown served in the Obama Administration, first as assistant to the president and staff secretary in the White House, and then as acting chief performance officer at the Office of Management and Budget. She was a member of the Obama-Biden transition team, serving as co-director of the Agency Review Working Group. 

Ms. Brown was also the executive director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, where she built the organization into a nationally recognized organization dedicated to furthering a progressive vision of law and policy.  

During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Brown worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and then became counsel to Vice President Gore, where she also served as a member of the executive board of the President’s Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities.  

Prior to serving in the DOJ, she was a partner at another firm where she litigated cases in trial and appellate courts concerning legal malpractice, government and commercial contracts, banking, and labor law, and worked on a variety of corporate matters. 

Ms. Brown was a law clerk for the Honorable John C. Godbold of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. 

Traevena Byrd has served as Vice President, General Counsel and Board Secretary for American University in Washington, DC since 2018. She is a member of the President’s cabinet and chief legal advisor to the university’s executive officers and Board of Trustees. Traevena oversees the provision of legal services for the university, corporate governance, and board operations. She has previously worked as Vice President and General Counsel at Towson University in Maryland; as Title IX coordinator, EEO investigator, adjunct faculty member, and associate general counsel at Ithaca College in New York; and as Director of the Commission on the Status of African Americans for the State of Iowa. 

Traevena previously served on the accreditation commission for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) and is completing her third term on the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) as immediate past chair. Traevena also serves as Chair of the Children’s Law Center in Washington, DC, as a member of the University of Iowa Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences, and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is a frequent presenter on higher education legal issues, most notably on the subject of free speech and student protest, for several higher education associations, including NACUA, the Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA), the American Council on Education (ACE), the Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education (NASPA), the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 

Traevena is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where she received both her Bachelor of Arts in African American World Studies with honors and her Juris Doctorate.