THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

STATEMENT BY PRESS SECRETARY

President Clinton today announced that Charles Ruff, currently Corporation Counsel to the District of Columbia, will succeed Jack Quinn as Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President. Mr. Quinn is expected to remain on the job until early next month.

The President made the following additional appointments:

Cheryl D. Mills, currently an Associate Counsel to the President, as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President;

Kathleen M.H. Wallman, currently Deputy Counsel to the President, to a newly created position as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Chief of Staff and Counselor to the National Economic Council, where she will manage the Council's staff and serve as deputy for policy-making on key legal and regulatory issues such as telecommunications;

Elena Kagan, currently an Associate Counsel to the President, as Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Charles Ruff has served since 1995 as Corporation Counsel to the District of Columbia. He is a former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Associate Deputy and Acting Deputy Attorney General, and Special Prosecutor in the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. From 1982 to 1995, Ruff was a partner in the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling.

"The job of counsel to the President requires an individual with a rare combination of intelligence, judgment, knowledge, experience, stature, and legal skill," the President said. "That is a perfect description of Charles Ruff. I do not know anyone better suited for to fill this position and I have no doubt that, like his predecessor, Jack Quinn, he will do a superb job."

Cheryl Mills, who has served as an Associate Counsel to the President since 1993, served as Deputy General Counsel to the President-elect during the 1992 presidential transition and a staff attorney for the Presidential Transition Planning Foundation. Prior to joining the transition, she was an associate at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan and Hartson. Ms. Mills received a B.A. in economics and philosophy from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Kathleen Wallman, who is currently Deputy Counsel to the President, served as Chief of the Common Carrier Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission and earlier as Deputy Chief of the FCC's Cable Service Bureau. Prior to joining the FCC, Ms. Wallman was a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Armold and Porter. She received a B.A. from Catholic University and earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Elena Kagan, who currently serves as an Associate Counsel to the President, is on leave from the University of Chicago, where she is a Professor of Law, specializing in constitutional law and labor law. Previously, Ms. Kagan was in private practice at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams and Connolly. She received her A.B. from Princeton University and an M. Phil in Politics at Worcester College, Oxford University, where she spent two years as a Daniel M. Sachs Scholar. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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