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Ronald Alan Klain ( ; born August 8, 1961) is an American attorney, political consultant, and former lobbyist serving as White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden. A Democrat, he was previously
chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...
to two vice presidents,
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
from 1995 to 1999 and Biden from 2009 to 2011. He was also appointed by President Barack Obama as White House Ebola Response Coordinator after the appearance of Ebola virus cases in the United States, serving from 2014 to 2015. Throughout 2020 he worked as a senior advisor to Biden's presidential campaign. Following his victory, Biden announced on November 12 that Klain would serve as White House chief of staff.


Early life and education

Klain was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Stanley Klain, a building contractor, and Sarann Warner (''née'' Horwitz), a travel agent. Klain is Jewish. He graduated from
North Central High School North Central High School may refer to one of many high school in the United States: *North Central High School (Farmersburg, Indiana) *North Central High School (Indianapolis) *North Central High School (Louisiana), Lebeau, Louisiana * North Cent ...
in 1979 and was on the school's '' Brain Game'' team which finished as season runner-up. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree, ''
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'', from Georgetown University in 1983. In 1987, he received his
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
degree, ''magna cum laude'', from
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
.


Career


Law clerk and Capitol Hill

From 1983 to 1984, Klain served as legislative director for U.S. representative Ed Markey (D–MA). Klain was a
law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
for
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice Byron White during the 1987 and 1988 terms. From 1989 to 1992, he served as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, overseeing the legal staff's work on matters of constitutional law, criminal law, antitrust law, and Supreme Court nominations, including the 1991 Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination. In 1995, Senator
Tom Daschle Thomas Andrew Daschle ( ; born December 9, 1947) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States senator from South Dakota from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he became U.S. Senate Minority Leader in 1995 an ...
appointed him the staff director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee.


Clinton administration

Klain joined the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1992 and was involved in both of Bill Clinton's presidential campaigns. He oversaw Clinton's judicial nominations. In the White House, Klain was Associate Counsel to the President, directing judicial selection efforts and leading the team that won confirmation of
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 1994, he became chief of staff and counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno and in 1995, chief of staff to
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
.


Gore campaign 1999–2000

Klain continued to serve as Gore’s chief of staff following the official launch of Gore’s presidential campaign on June 16, 1999. On August 2, 1999, Klain resigned from the role to join the Washington, D.C., office of
O'Melveny & Myers O'Melveny & Myers LLP is an American multinational law firm founded in Los Angeles, California in 1885. The firm employs approximately 740 lawyers and has offices in California, Washington, D.C., New York City, Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, Lon ...
, a law firm. As general counsel of Gore's Recount Committee, Klain oversaw the November-December 2000 recount of votes in Florida, which ended when the Supreme Court put an end to the counting and George W. Bush was named the winner.


Lobbying

Klain was registered as a lobbyist for Fannie Mae until 2005.


2004–2014

During the early primaries of the 2004 presidential campaign, Klain worked as an adviser to Wesley Clark during Clark's run for president. After John Kerry won the Democratic nomination, Klain became heavily involved behind the scenes in his campaign. Klain served as an informal adviser to Evan Bayh who is from Klain's home state of Indiana. In 2005, Klain left his partnership at
O'Melveny & Myers O'Melveny & Myers LLP is an American multinational law firm founded in Los Angeles, California in 1885. The firm employs approximately 740 lawyers and has offices in California, Washington, D.C., New York City, Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, Lon ...
to become executive vice president and general counsel of Revolution LLC, a technology venture capital firm launched by
AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...
co-founder
Steve Case Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Computer ...
. At the time of his October 2014 appointment as Ebola response coordinator, he was general counsel at Revolution LLC and President of Case Holdings.


Obama administration 2008–2015

Klain was one of the people who assisted Barack Obama in his preparation for the
2008 United States presidential debates The United States presidential debates of 2008 were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bipartisan organization that sponsored four debates that occurred at various locations around the United States in September and Oct ...
. On November 12, 2008, '' Roll Call'' announced that Klain had been chosen to serve as
chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...
to Vice President Joe Biden, the same role he served for Gore.Allen, Mike (November 13, 2008)
"Klain accepts job as Biden chief of staff"
. Politico.
Klain had worked with Biden, having served as counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary while Biden chaired the committee and assisted Biden's speechwriting team during the 1988 presidential campaign. p. 482. In May 2010, amid concerns about whether the now-defunct solar-panel company Solyndra was viable, Klain gave the go-ahead for an Obama visit to the factory, and stated in an email to White House advisor Valerie Jarrett that "the reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by election day 2012." Klain was mentioned as a possible replacement for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, but opted to leave the White House in January 2011 and return to Case Holdings, where he oversaw Revolution LLC and assisted Steve Case and his wife, Jean Case, in administering the Case Foundation. On October 17, 2014, Klain was appointed the "
Ebola response coordinator Four laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (commonly known as "Ebola") occurred in the United States in 2014. Eleven cases were reported, including these four cases and seven cases medically evacuated from other countries. The first ...
" sometimes referred to as Ebola "czar." Although Klain, according to Julie Hirschfeld Davis writing in '' The New York Times'', had "no record or expertise in Ebola specifically or public health in general," the choice was praised by Ezra Klein for his bureaucratic experience with coordinating agencies. His term as Ebola response coordinator ended in February 2015. After his term as Ebola czar, Klain worked as an external advisor to the Skoll Foundation Global Threats Fund. He also served as chairman, public advocate and private advisor for Higher Grounds Labs, which describes itself as supporting "start-ups building products that help progressives win."


Clinton campaign and Trump years

In 2015, Klain joined Hillary Clinton's ultimately-unsuccessful presidential campaign. He helped Clinton prepare for the Democratic primary debates, as well as the presidential debates against Republican nominee Donald Trump. After Trump's election, he continued to work at Revolution LLC, and repeatedly criticized the administration in op-eds and television appearances.


Biden campaign and administration

During the 2020 Biden campaign, Klain served as an advisor on the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020 he told Wired: "If we’re going to make Covid-19 go away, we’re going to need a very high vaccination rate. The number one public health challenge of 2021 is going to be getting people to take the vaccine." He helped Biden prepare for the presidential debates against Trump. On November 11, 2020, it was announced that President-elect Joe Biden had selected Klain to be White House Chief of Staff. Klain has received praise for his organizational abilities and for his responsiveness while serving as President Biden's chief of staff, while drawing criticism for being overly concerned with élite opinion, as reflected by his active Twitter presence, and for being too aligned with his party's
left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
bloc. During his first year in his position, Klain used Twitter, saying "I find being on Twitter useful as an early-warning system of things that, to be honest, reporters are talking about." He also uses the platform to take aim at critics and to push pro-Biden messages. In October 2022, The Office of Special Counsel found that Klain had violated the
Hatch Act The Hatch Act of 1939, An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law. Its main provision prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice pre ...
and was warned not to do so again.


Personal life

Klain is married to
Monica Medina Monica P. Medina (born 1962) is an American attorney and government official who previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the Department of State. Medina served as ...
, an attorney, consultant, and co-founder of Our Daily Planet, an environmental news platform. They were college sweethearts at Georgetown and in February 2019 he tweeted that they were celebrating their 40th Valentine's Day together. They have three adult children, Hannah, Michael and Daniel. In financial disclosures Klain reported owning assets worth between $4.4m and $12.2m in 2021 compared to between $1.4m and $3.5m in 2009. He received a salary of almost $2m in 2020 from the venture capital firm Revolution LLC, where he served as general counsel and executive vice president. In 2009, he reported earning a salary of $1m. Klain lives in what the New York Times calls the "verdant power enclave" of
Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place (Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland) that straddle the northwest border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Several settlements in th ...
, with neighbors that include Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He has referred to his large home as “the House That O’Melveny Built,” after his lucrative time at the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers.


In popular culture

Klain was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the HBO film '' Recount,'' which depicted the tumult of the 2000 presidential election. In 2021, he was included in the ''Time'' 100, '' Time''s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.


See also

* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6)


References


External links

* Personal Account * *
Ron Klain
collected news and commentary at '' Bloomberg'' * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Klain, Ron 1961 births Al Gore American business executives Biden administration cabinet members Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States Georgetown University alumni Harvard Law School alumni Indiana Democrats Jewish American attorneys Jewish American members of the Cabinet of the United States Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Living people Maryland Democrats MSNBC people Obama administration personnel People from Indianapolis Washington, D.C., Democrats White House Chiefs of Staff 21st-century American lawyers