THE WHITE HOUSE

                        Office of the Press Secretary 
                      (Martha's Vinyard, Massachusetts)
______________________________________________________________________ 
For Immediate Release                                  August 29, 1997 

                      PRESIDENT NAMES GAIL W. LASTER AS 
                                GENERAL COUNSEL, 
               U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING & URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The President today announced his intention to nominate Gail W. Laster as General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Ms. Laster, of Spring Valley, New York, is the Director of Governmental Relations/Counsel for the Legal Services Corporation where she has served since December 1994. From January 1992 to November 1994, Ms. Laster served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights. She served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Subcommittee on Labor from 1990 to 1992. Ms. Laster worked as a staff attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia from 1985 to 1990, and served as a law clerk for Judge Mary Johnson Lowe of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1985. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

The General Counsel, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is the principal legal advisor to the Secretary and the Department. The General Counsel provides legal opinions, advice and services for all programs and activities within the Department and provides counsel and assistance in the development of the Department's programs and policies, and in the development and enactment of legislative initiatives.

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