Legal News

Law Blog Q&A: Obama-Campaign Lawyer Kendall Burman

By Ashby Jones

When we heard recently that the lead on-the-ground lawyer for the Obama campaign hasn’t yet celebrated her 30th birthday, we weren’t all that surprised. After all, Obama’s head speechwriter, we also recently learned, is a mere 26.

Still, we knew immediately we had to catch up with this person. And we did, yesterday. Law Blog readers, meet the 29-year-old Kendall Burman, a 2004 University of Chicago Law School grad, former Latham & Watkins associate, and the lone “staff counsel” manning the ship at Obama headquarters in Chicago.

Hi Kendall, thanks for taking the time. Tell us about this job of yours.

Well, I’m basically the in-house attorney here with the campaign. My title is “staff counsel,” and my job is to be on the ground at headquarters here and manage the legal issues that come up and try to figure out what to do.

And what issues do come up?

The job is really broken into two parts. There are a lot of basic business issues we have to deal with. The Obama campaign is really a medium-to-big sized corporation, so a lot of what I deal with is what any similar company might deal with. There are leases and contracts and tax issues and employment issues.

Huh. We gotta say, that sounds less sexy than we’d imagined.

Yeah, that part’s not that sexy. But there’s another half, which deals more with electoral-law issues. There are voter-protection issues, campaign-finance issues, everything specific to the campaign. I review a lot of campaign literature. My job is really to resolve things I can resolve and to raise red flags when I need to.

Gotcha. Now, you’re 29. I take it you don’t know all there is to know about business tax or employment law, right? So what do you do when you have questions?

Bob Bauer at Perkins Coie. He’s the lead outside counsel for the campaign, and he’s really my boss. There are a handful of lawyers at Perkins in D.C. who do a lot of work with Bob and handle bigger-ticket issues.

Now, the question everyone out there’s dying to know: How’d you get the job?

The summer after I graduated from Chicago, I volunteered for the Democratic National Committee during the Kerry campaign, and got to know Bob [Bauer]. Then I went to work at Latham in D.C. Early last year, Bob called me and told me that the position was open. I applied and got the job.

We heard you were one of Obama’s students at Chicago. Did that help you get the job?

I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Truthfully, we didn’t have that much of a relationship when I took his class. I was just sort of a student. We weren’t really out-of-class friends or anything.

And we should also mention that your dad is Perkins Coie’s David Burman, a well-known Seattle litigator.

Right. He put me in touch with Bob after law school.

Okay, so what’s the office like? We’d imagine campaign HQ is probably pretty different from Latham, right?

Yeah, it’s pretty different from being in a law firm, where everything’s more formal. Here, we’re all in cubicles and the office is filled to the brim with people and you’re all on top of each other and you can hear everyone else’s phone conversations. And you’re not surrounded by other lawyers.

Are you working around the clock?

It’s pretty much a 24/7 job; you just have to make yourself available all the time. For now, I’m getting sleep, but that’s not always true right around the time of the individual primaries. Voter issues come up, the field gets very active right before a primary.

Is Obama around much?

He does come in, but not as often as he did several months ago. It’s his job now to be on the road and our job to support him.

Are your friends back at Latham jealous?

I think there’s a lot of excitement there. It’s certainly different than it was over the summer, when things weren’t looking so good for us. Then, they definitely weren’t envious at all!

Right. Things are looking good for Obama now, but that can change quickly, as we know. Given that, how do you deal with thinking about your future?

Yeah, I’m not sure how this plays out. It’s my first time working within a campaign. Right now, I feel absolute dedication to making sure he’s elected. I’d love to be a part of an Obama administration. That’d be ideal. But in terms of joining another campaign down the road, I can’t even really fathom that now. This is where my dedication and focus is.

Well, regardless, sounds like you’re a Beltway lawyer now, though you grew up in Seattle. Where do you consider home?

I think D.C. has become my adopted home. Ah, I can’t believe I said that. It’s not going to make my parents happy!

Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 22, 2008 (boomark / email).