Edwards Angell Adds Jenner & Block Public Policy Chair

By Tina Peng

Law360, New York (November 12, 2009) -- Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP has announced that Mark Heilbrun, a former partner at Jenner & Block LLP, has joined its Washington office as a partner in the public policy and governmental relations department, and will also work in its litigation and insurance and reinsurance departments.

Heilbrun, who was chair of Jenner & Block's public policy practice, focuses his practice on government and independent investigations, compliance, corporate governance and lobbying activities, Edwards Angell said in a Tuesday statement.

A former Marine, Heilbrun began working at Edwards Angell in October. He said he spent five years at Jenner & Block but welcomed the opportunity to pursue a wider range of focuses.

“Jenner & Block has a tight litigation focus, and they're very, very good at what they do,” he said. “Edwards Angell is perhaps a little more entrepreneurial, and it'll allow me some opportunities to maybe branch out a bit.”

He said he hoped to “be involved deeply” in the debate over financial services reform, as well as in the antitrust initiatives undertaken by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, for which he has served as staff director and general counsel. In particular, Heilbrun said, he is interested in the proposals to impact the antitrust exemption for certain industries, and to bring into effect a federal regulator for the insurance industry.

As staff director and general counsel for the Judiciary Committee, Heilbrun negotiated and drafted post-9/11 legislation including the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, and he managed hundreds of congressional oversight investigations, according to Edwards Angell.

He has played a key role in investigations including the congressional terror-financing investigation that led to the U.S.'s first-ever designation of Hamas as a terrorist group, the investigation of alleged Chinese involvement in illegal financing of U.S. political campaigns and the examination of and eventual finding of Iran's responsibility in the bombing of the Khobar Towers complex.

Heilbrun also represented before the U.S. Supreme Court the first U.S. Secret Service agent compelled to testify during the Starr Independent Counsel probe of President Bill Clinton, and he was the sole investigator appointed by Congress to participate in the forensic inquiry into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy undertaken by the Assassination Records Review Board.

"Mark has been among the leading practitioners involved in responding to extraordinarily high-profile governmental and independent investigations for the past 20 years,” Charles E. DeWitt, chair of Edwards Angell's public policy and government relations department, said in a statement. “Mark’s addition will provide clients with unmatched access to the way in which these significant investigations — and Washington itself — truly operate.”

Heilbrun received his B.A. from Emory University, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his J.D. from the University of Texas Law School, where he graduated with honors.