Michael E. Toner

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Michael E. Toner, American attorney and political appointee, specialized in election law, and currently employed by Bryan Cave LLP where he heads the Election Law and Government Ethics Practice. He is also a senior advisor to Bryan Cave Strategies. He formerly served as the chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the regulatory body that oversees campaign finance for United States federal elections.

Mr. Toner joined Bryan Cave in 2007 after serving as chairman of the Federal Election Commission in 2006. He was nominated to be an FEC commissioner by President George W. Bush on March 4, 2002, and was given a recess appointment to the FEC on March 29, 2002. The United States Senate confirmed Toner to a full term as Commissioner on March 18, 2003.

Prior to being appointed to the FEC, he was Chief Counsel of the Republican National Committee. Mr. Toner joined the RNC in 2001 after serving as general counsel of the Bush-Cheney Transition Team in Washington, D.C. and general counsel of the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign in Austin, Texas.

Before joining the Bush campaign in Austin, Toner was Deputy Counsel at the RNC from 1997 to 1999. Prior to his tenure at the RNC, Mr. Toner served as Counsel to the Dole/Kemp Presidential Campaign in 1996.

Toner was an associate attorney at Wiley Rein LLP (formerly Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP) in Washington, D.C. from 1992 to 1996. His work there included advising political committees and corporate clients on federal and state election law compliance. He was also involved in a number of First and Fourteenth Amendment appellate litigation matters, including two cases that were successful in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Toner has written widely on campaign finance matters, including in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Times, Hill Newspaper and Roll Call. He is a contributing author of a forthcoming book on the 2006 midterm election entitled The Sixth Year Itch (edited by Professor Larry J. Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics). Mr. Toner also was a contributing author of Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election. In addition, he has appeared as a guest commentator on Fox News Channel, ABC News, CBS Evening News, Bloomberg News, C-SPAN and National Public Radio.

Mr. Toner has been an adjunct professor of law at the William and Mary Law School and a lecturer in the department of politics at the University of Virginia. Mr. Toner is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia bars, as well as the United States Supreme Court bar. He also is admitted to appear before the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia and Eastern District of Virginia.

Mr. Toner received a J.D., cum laude, from Cornell Law School in 1992, an M.A. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1989, and a B.A., with distinction, from the University of Virginia in 1986.

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