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Christine A. Varney
Born	December 17, 1955 (1955-12-17) (age 54) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	United States
Education	B.A. (1977), M.P.A. (1978), J.D. (1986)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Dublin State University of New York at Albany Syracuse University Georgetown Law School
Occupation	lawyer, lobbyist, public official
Employer	Hogan and Hartson United States Department of Justice
Political party	Democratic
Board member of	Ryder System
Spouse(s)	Thomas J. Graham
Children	John Walsh Graham (~1987) Michael Graham (~1990)
Parents	John Varney of Skaneateles, New York
Notes [1][2][3][4]

Christine A. Varney is an American lawyer lobbyist, and internet policy expert who served as personnel counsel for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. She now serves as Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the United States Department of Justice.^[5]

Varney served in the Clinton Administration as a Federal Trade Commissioner October 17, 1994 - August 5, 1997, ^[6] and previously as Secretary to the Cabinet. Until her appointment as an assistant Attorney General, she was a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm Hogan and Hartson, where she led the internet practice group.^[1][7] Varney joined the Clinton Administration at its inception, after serving as general counsel to the Democratic National Committee (1989 to 1992), chief counsel to the Clinton/Gore Campaign, and general counsel to the 1992 Presidential Inaugural Committee. As Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Cabinet, she acted as a liaison between the White House and cabinet departments. She stated the Clinton Administration's philosophy of cabinet management this way: "if you don’t surprise us, we won't micromanage you!"^[8] Her duties included organizing cabinet meetings and briefings, circulating talking points among cabinet members, compiling cabinet reports with updates on each department's activities, and coordinating responses to natural disasters. She played a leading role in the Clinton Administration's response to revelations about Cold War experiments that exposed uniformed human subjects (servicemen) to radiation.^{[citation needed]} She also had a major voice on policy regarding information technology and information privacy.

These policy areas remained among her priorities while she served on the Federal Trade Commission. There, she proposed industry standards and increased government enforcement of laws protecting privacy. She also promoted market theory analysis to information technology and biotechnology^[9].

In the private sector, Varney was involved in establishing industry self-regulation associations, such as the Network Advertising Initiative and Online Privacy Alliance, designed to identify Internet best practices. As a lobbyist she represented mostly computer and internet firms, but also oil & gas interests.^[10] She represented Netscape during U.S. v. Microsoft and its merger with AOL.^[11] She is chairman of the board of directors of TRUSTe, the leading privacy certification and seal program. She also lectures on American law and politics; writes for mainstream, hi-tech and legal publications; and participates in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) dialogues on international competition and political processes.

Before she joined the Barack Obama team she was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 United States presidential election.^[3]

As head of Hogan and Hartson's Internet practice group, Varney represented and advised companies on matters such as antitrust, privacy, business planning and corporate governance, intellectual property, and general liability issues. Her clients have included eBay, DoubleClick, The Washington Post Company's Washingtonpost and Newsweek interactive businesses, Dow Jones & Company, AOL, Synopsys, Compaq, Gateway, Netscape, the Liberty Alliance, and Real Networks.

She earned a degree at Trinity College, Dublin (1975), a B.A. at the State University of New York at Albany (1977), an M.P.A. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University (magna cum laude 1978), and a J.D. at Georgetown Law School (1986).^[1][7]

[edit] Notes

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