Kathryn Ruemmler

 ( 1971 Births ) 

Ruemmler returned to Latham in Washington, D.C., in 2007, this time as a partner.

In October 2011, Ruemmler said there was no evidence of the White House intervening in Solyndra's loan guarantee to benefit a campaign donor. Her letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee refused to allow committee Republicans to get access to internal White House communications. The letter denied Republican claims of improper White House influence in the Energy Department's 2009 decision to grant the company a $535 million loan guarantee, and the deal's early 2011 revamp that put private investors ahead of taxpayers for repayment if the company was liquidated.

Over what would have traditionally been the 2011-2012 winter recess of the 112th Congress, the House of Representatives did not assent to recess, specifically to block a recess appointment of Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a result, both the House and Senate held pro forma sessions. On January 4, 2012, Barack Obama claimed authority to appoint Cordray and others under the Recess Appointments Clause. Ruemmler asserted that the appointments were valid, because the pro forma sessions were designed to, "through form, render a constitutional power of the executive obsolete," and that the Senate was for all intents and purposes recessed. Republicans in the Senate disputed the appointments, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stating that Obama had "arrogantly circumvented the American people" and endangered "the Congress's role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch." It was expected that there would be a legal challenge to the appointments. On January 6, 2012, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion regarding recess appointments and pro forma sessions, stating that "the convening of periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is to be conducted does not have the legal effect of interrupting an intrasession recess otherwise long enough to qualify as a 'Recess of the Senate' under the Recess Appointments Clause. In this context, the President therefore has discretion to conclude that the Senate is unavailable to perform its advise-and-consent function and to exercise his power to make recess appointments."

After National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius was decided in favor of the Obama administration on 28 June 2012, Ruemmler was the one to tell Obama and his chief of staff, Jack Lew, that the administration's signature Obamacare legislation had actually been upheld.

In a profile by the Washington Post, it was reported that during negotiations over John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director, according to a White House official, it was Ruemmler who decided that the House and Senate intelligence panels could review the e-mails about different drafts of the Benghazi talking points without letting them take copies. The administration shifted course in May 2013 by releasing the e-mails after weeks of controversy over their content.

In September 2014, when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to step down, Ruemmler was speculated as being a potential candidate as the next United States Attorney General. She withdrew from consideration the following month, amid speculation that she would have faced a "difficult confirmation process" because of her close friendship with President Obama.

In 2020, Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs as a partner, and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs; in 2021 she was promoted to Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. She is on the firmwide Management Committee.

Ruemmler was named to the FINRA Board of Governors in 2021, a part-time position.