Two more HLS alumni will join the Obama administration: Preeta Bansal ’89 will serve as general counsel and senior policy advisor at the Office of Management and Budget at the White house, and Jocelyn Frye ’88 will serve as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy and director of policy and projects for the first lady.
Currently a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in New York City, Bansal has been considered a member of Obama’s inner circle.
Since 2003, Bansal has been a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, serving as chair from 2004-2005. In this role, she has participated in U.S. diplomatic missions to numerous countries and presided over a nationally acclaimed study on the Department of Homeland Security’s procedures for expedited removal of U.S. asylum seekers.
From 1999-2002, Bansal served as Solicitor General of the State of New York. Previously, she served as a counselor in the Office of Policy Development and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.
After obtaining her law degree, Bansal clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Frye previously worked as general counsel at the National Partnership for Women and Families in Washington, DC. She also directs the National Partnership’s Workplace Fairness Program, with an emphasis on employment barriers facing women of color and low-income women.
Frye participates in a number of civil rights and women’s coalitions and serves as the co-chair of the employment task force and the economic security task force for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. After graduating from law school, she worked as an associate at Crowell & Moring, a Washington, DC, law firm, concentrating in the white-collar crime and labor law practice areas.