Laurie Rubenstein

Laurie served 16 years as counsel with the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (previously known as the Governmental Affairs Committee).  During her eight-year tenure as the committee’s Chief Democratic Counsel, she supervised the Democratic staff’s involvement in investigations, including the committee’s extensive and bipartisan investigation into the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and its inquiries into government agency oversight in the years leading up to the collapse of Enron Corp. Laurie also took part in the development, enactment and oversight of many of the committee’s major pieces of legislation, including the Homeland Security Act. She served as Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s principal staffer on the Clinton impeachment proceedings in 1999, and as his lead staffer on the yearlong investigation by the Governmental Affairs Committee into campaign finance abuses during the 1996 federal election campaigns.

Since leaving Capitol Hill, Laurie has focused primarily on representing clients before Congress and in other government investigations, as well as advocating for clients in federal district and appellate courts. Her clients have found her especially adept at helping them present their stories in compelling narratives, a skill that led her to assist Ambassador Yovanovitch with her memoir, Lessons From the Edge.

Earlier in her career, Laurie spent four years at a global law firm, litigating civil and criminal trials and appeals, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as an adjunct professor in research and writing at George Washington University Law School. After law school, Laurie clerked for the Honorable Kimba M. Wood of the 'U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.