Norman Eisen

Why He Matters

Norm Eisen is described as “Mr. No.” The career D.C. lawyer who went to Harvard Law School with Barack Obama is now the president’s ethics guru, which usually means he’s telling top-level officials that they can’t get an exception to hire someone they want or can’t take a gift from a former colleague.

One of his first tasks was to compile all of Obama’s campaign promises about the role lobbyists would play in the White House and turn them into an executive order, one Obama signed the day after taking office.

Later, Eisen trained everyone who would work in the White House on ethical guidelines, giving seminars to hundreds of people at a time. And now, he spends his days answering questions about ethics for people throughout the Executive Office of the President. “This is what my job is like,” Eisen said. “It’s one emergency after the next.”Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009

Path to Power

Eisen is a first-generation American. His parents were Holocaust survivors who had an arranged marriage and moved to Los Angeles to run a hamburger stand. “I’m up from the bootstraps,” Eisen said, “and I feel a very strong sense of obligation and loyalty to the country that might be old-fashioned.”Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009

He graduated from Brown University in 1985 and, like Obama, took three years off to work as a community organizer before going to Harvard Law School, where he met Obama.McQuilken, Marisa, “How Obama worked his way into Clinton’s D.C. lawyer base,” Legal Times, March 24, 2008 After graduating from law school, Eisen took a job in Washington with Zuckerman Spaeder, a large, national law firm. He worked there for the next 17 years, handling white-collar and Congressional investigations for the firm and eventually becoming a partner.Press release, “President Obama announces key additions to the Office of the White House Counsel,” Executive Office of the President, Jan. 28, 2009

He spent much of his career serving as outside counsel to government clients, and he co-founded Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).Press release, “President Obama announces key additions to the Office of the White House Counsel,” Executive Office of the President, Jan. 28, 2009 Eisen and Louis Mayberg approached Melanie Sloan in 2003 about starting the progressive government watchdog group, but he did not run the day-to-day operations.Schulman, Daniel, “House wrecker: Why Tom Delay hates this woman,” Mother Jones, January 2007

Eisen called Obama early in the 2008 presidential campaign and pledged his support for his former classmate. He raised large sums of money (and donated a lot himself) and ran the election protection team for Obama. He also worked on education policy until late in the general election cycle, when he took a lead role on ethics reform.Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009 "A number of the lawyers who help on the campaign have a joke," Eisen said. "We work 75 percent of our time on our jobs, and 75 percent of our time on the campaign."McQuilken, Marisa, “How Obama worked his way into Clinton’s D.C. lawyer base,” Legal Times, March 24, 2008

A few weeks before the election, he began gathering all the campaign promises Obama made about ethics reform and started to form them into an executive order. After Obama’s victory, Eisen took a job as the Deputy General Counsel to Obama’s transition team to continue his work on ethics guidelines. The executive order was signed by Obama on Jan. 21, 2009, the day after Obama’s inauguration.Press release “Ethics commitments by executive branch personnel,” The White House Office of Press Secretary, January 21, 2009

Eisen was hired a week later to serve as special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform. His current role is to make sure the rules that he developed in the executive order are being followed by everyone in the White House.Gilbert, Mary, “Office of counsel to the president takes shape,” National Journal, January 28, 2009

The Issues

The scope of Eisen’s work is huge. Obama has essentially given him free rein over all ethics issues in the White House, and staffers know to call Eisen whenever they have a question regarding more than 1,000 pages of ethics regulations. His role has earned him the names “Mr. No” and “The Fun Sponge.” “Norm is not afraid to tell people what they can’t do, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a Cabinet secretary who wants a waiver to hire somebody or a junior staffer who got a Starbucks card for taking someone on a tour,” Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu told The Washington Post. “Norm applies the rules fairly, and he is willing to be the bearer of bad news.”Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009

Eisen generally carries with him a personal copy of “5 CFR,” the code of federal regulations, which Eisen has annotated and mangled, ripping out pages that don’t apply to the White House and crossing out rules he intended to change. He said he made a decision early not to allow White House employees to receive small gifts or honorary degrees or awards from lobbyists. “Some of those things are just scams,” he said.Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009 He knows the rules inside out, saying they have seeped into his DNA after just a few months of answering question after question from White House staffers. “He’s the original propeller-head ethics geek, like something right out of ‘The West Wing’ TV show,” White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig said. “I don’t leave home without Norm on these issues.”Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009

Shortly after the election, Eisen began giving PowerPoint lectures to everyone who was going to work in the White House, including a 90-minute session with Obama and meetings with Michelle Obama and every Cabinet secretary. He gave lectures to as many as 200 people at a time about what was and wasn’t allowed. “You’re not going to understand all the rules,” Eisen said. “So you use your common sense. How’s this going to look on the front page of The Washington Post?”Saslow, Eli, “White House Ethics? ‘Mr. No’ Knows,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2009 Eisen continues going around the White House answering questions.

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