Edward Whelan (American lawyer)

Martin Edward Whelan III (born 1960) is an politically conservative American lawyer. He currently serves as President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank, and formerly was an official in the United States Department of Justice.

Early life and education

Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1981 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.^[1] In 1985, he earned a law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and also was on the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.^[1]

From 1985 until 1986, Whelan worked as a law clerk to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.^[1] From 1991 until 1992, Whelan worked as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.^[1]

Professional career

In the 1990s, Whelan served as general counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary while it was controlled by Republicans. He also has worked as a lawyer in private practice and was Senior Vice President and Counselor to the General Counsel for Verizon Corporation.^[1]

From 2001 until 2004, Whelan served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, advising the White House Counsel's Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and Departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions.

In 2004, Whelan became president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit think tank that is based in Washington, D.C. He directs the EPPC's program on the United States Constitution, federal courts and culture.

Blogging

In May 2005, Whelan began blogging at the National Review's website.^[2]

In June 2009, Whelan sparked a controversy in the blogosphere when he publicly divulged the name of a pseudonymous legal blogger.^[3] He did so in a post entitled "Exposing an Irresponsible Anonymous blogger" (even though the blogger in question was pseudonymous, rather than anonymous). Whelan apologized to the blogger for the disclosure,^[4] and the blogger accepted Whelan's apology.^[5]

References