Preeta Bansal named General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor

Preeta Bansal, former NY StateSolicitor General and Clintonadministration official - andObama friend from Harvard LawSchool - has been namedGeneral Counsel and SeniorPolicy Advisor in the Office of Managementand Budget (OMB) in the upcoming administrationof Barack Obama. Members of theIndian American community had hoped thatPreeta Bansal, Obama’s earliest Indian-American supporters — was up for a seniorlevel position in the Obama administration.

Her appointment at the Office ofManagement and Budget, which one Obamatransition team source told the media would“be the heart of the new administration’sagenda for change.” And the ‘source’ wasquoted to have said, “Barack wanted her tobe at the center of the action.” It is a WhiteHouse position and therefore no Senate confirmationis needed. Bansal would be “basedin the White House complex.”

The transition team also announced fillingup of other vacancies in the department,including Jeffrey Liebman (ExecutiveAssociate Director); Steve Kosiak (AssociateDirector for Defense and InternationalAffairs), Robert Gordon (Associate Directorfor Education, Income Maintenance andLabor) and Xavier de Souza Briggs(Associate Director for General GovernmentPrograms).

“The Office of Management and Budgetin my administration will not only design,manage and implement our budget, it willfocus on cutting waste and making sure thatour government is serving the American peopleeffectively and efficiently. I look forwardto working with them in the months and yearsahead,” Obama said in a statement issuedalong with the announcement.

Reports suggested that there was muchdisappointment in the Indian-American communitywhen Preeta Bansal, who was stronglytipped to be the new US solicitor generalwas passed over for this position. PresidentBarack Obama last month appointed ElanaKagan, the dean of the Harvard Law Schooland a former clerk to the first AfricanAmerican Supreme Court Justice ThurgoodMarshall, to this position.

The OMB is a cabinet-level agency withinthe White House that reports directly to thepresident and that has the capability and visibilityacross the entire government to takeimmediate policy action and execute on thepresident’s commitments and priorities.

‘We are fortunate to have this distinguishedgroup of individuals serving in thesekey posts,’ and expressed his confidence that‘this team will be well-equipped to tackle thechallenges ahead,’ a senior White House officialwas reported to have said.

Bansal, a 43-year-old partner at law firmSkadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom inNew York City, is a 1993-96 veteran of theClinton White House and JusticeDepartment. Bansal came to know of Obamaat the Harvard Law School. Later on, whenhe launched his campaign, Bansal served as asenior adviser. Besides being second in commandin the area of immigration on the campaign’sImmigration Policy AdvisoryCommittee, she was among his advisers oninternational human rights, legal issues, foreignpolicy, women’s issues and outreach toAsian Americans.

The Indian-born lawyer also campaignedaggressively for him at various AsianAmerican and South Asian American events.She also has the distinction of being thebiggest Indian-American fund-raiser for thecampaign and along with Ohio’s SubodhChandra, raised over $1 million toward theObama coffers.

Bansal became familiar with Obama’sforeign-policy work through her service onthe U.S. Commission on InternationalReligious Freedom. She shares the candidate’semphasis on expanding legal immigration,especially jobs-based immigration,although Obama has also fought for placing acontinued priority on family reunification.

Obama “is able to advance progressiveprinciples but he’s not one of these starryeyedliberals,” she says. “With him, two plustwo equals five, not four. The whole isgreater than the sum of the parts.”

New York mayor Michael Bloomberghad named her last May to the city’sCampaign Finance Board. The mayor said ina statement, “In Preeta Bansal, the C.F.B. isgetting a first-rate legal mind who will bringa wealth of experience that will aid the boardin applying the law and ensuring the integrityof the public financing program.”

Preeta came to the US from India at age 3and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Shereceived more than 200 national speakingand debating awards as a student of LincolnEast High School and was selected as a U.S.Presidential Scholar by the FederalCommission on Presidential Scholars. Shedid her undergraduate studies from Harvard-Radcliff College where she graduated PhiBeta Kappa. Later, she graduated magna cumlaude at the Harvard Law School, where shewas the supervising editor of the HarvardLaw Review. Her meteoric rise up the legalladder is a telling illustration of grit and meritcombining to win her such a prestigious positionat such a relatively young age.

Preeta was appointed New York’sSolicitor General in February 1999 — one ofthe youngest solicitor generals in New Yorkhistory. She was New York’s top litigator,arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.Prior to her appointment as Solicitor General,Preeta gained wide legal experience as WhiteHouse Special Counsel, as counsel to U.S.Attorney General Janet Reno and as a lawclerk to Supreme Court Justice John PaulStevens. She also worked with theWashington office of Arnold & Porter, focusingon First Amendment cases and morerecently with leading New York law firm,Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where she focusedon media and the first amendment.

In May 2001, Preeta Bansal, while servingas the Solicitor General of New YorkState, was honored with a Special Award inrecognition of her achievements as an AsianAmerican by the Asian-American attorneysbelonging to the Department of Justice (DOJ)and its affiliates. In 2004, Preeta Bansal fromthe state of Nebraska was appointed to theUS Commission on International ReligiousFreedom. She was appointed to theCommission by then Senate Minority LeaderTom Daschle and twice reappointed byDaschle and current Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid.

In this capacity, she has undertaken USdiplomatic missions to Iraq, Afghanistan,Uzbekistan, Russia, Turkey, China, SaudiArabia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri LankaWhen she was the solicitor general of NewYork state from 1999 to 2001, she arguedcases in the US Supreme Court, the SecondCircuit and the New York State Court ofAppeals on behalf of New York State andhelped supervise more than 600 lawyers inthe New York State attorney general’s Office.She received the ‘Best United StatesSupreme Court Brief’ award from theNational Association of Attorneys Generalduring every year of her tenure as New Yorksolicitor general.

The New York Times once profiled herand described her ‘as a legal superstar’ whileThe New York Law Journal referred to her as‘one of the most gifted lawyers of her generation,who combines a brilliant analyticalmind with solid, mature, judgment.’