Bradford A. Berenson

Intro
Bradford A. Berenson is one of the original eight associate counsels during Alberto Gonzales's tenure as White House counsel, that was described in a Washington Post 2005.01.02 article titled, Gonzales Helped Set the Course for Detainees, as being comprised of;


 * a tightknit group of Washington-based former clerks to Supreme Court or appellate judges, all of whom had worked on at least one of three touchstones of the conservative movement: the Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky inquiries of former president Bill Clinton, the Bush-Cheney election campaign, and the Florida vote-counting dispute.

This group of associate counsels exerted a great deal of control in the creation of the Patriot Bill, Gonzales' determinations regarding the legal statures of "detainees" captured in the War on Terrorism, the validity of the Geneva Conventions, and a new less stringent legal definition of torture.

Education

 * Yale College (B.A., 1986, summa cum laude)
 * Harvard Law School (J.D., 1991, magna cum laude)

Current Positon
Berenson is a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP.

Positions Held

 * Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review
 * Law Clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
 * Law Clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court
 * Consultant to Independent Counsel David M. Barrett's investigation of Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros -
 * Jan.01 - Jan.03 Associate Counsel to the President of the United States

Associations

 * American Enterprise Institute adjunct fellow
 * Federalist Society positions
 * Vice-Chairman, Criminal Law & Procedure practice group
 * Chairman, White Collar Crime subcommittee
 * Member of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court
 * Signatory to AVOT's 2004.09.23, A Letter To Congress: The Patriot Act Is Vital To Protecting National Security
 * Co-founder of Citizens for the Common Defence, a shadowy group, whose members include Robert Bork and 23 other conservative lawyers and legal scholars, including several recent veterans of the White House counsel's office and the Justice Department, that argue as Amicus in Federal Court, often defending decisions they help to create in front of judges they once clerked for.

Non-Sourcewatch Links

 * "The Abrams Report", MSNBC - April 28, 2004 -
 * AVOT's letter to Congress dated September 23, 2004 -
 * Berenson, Bradford A. and Klinger, Richard; "Justice Served"; Wall Street Journal, 2003.06.10 - FrontPage mirror
 * Berenson, Bradford A.; "Earth to Second Circuit-We're at war"; WSJ, 2004.01.01 -
 * Berenson, Bradford A.; "Legal Decision-Making in the Bush White House: Enron, the War on Terror, and Homeland Security"; Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (REITI), (Japaneese Think Tank), 2004.06.30 -
 * Sidley Austin Brown & Wood - Berenson bio -
 * U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; August Term, 1998; Docket No. 98-1215; United States of America, Appellant, v. Mango -
 * US Supreme Court; Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 03-6696 - PDF from Wash. Post