Christine Varney - Personnel Counsel: Obama-Biden Transition Project

Varney is a partner at law firm Hogan & Hartson, where she heads the firm's Internet practice group. She has lobbied on behalf of the Online Privacy Alliance and other clients. During the Clinton administration, she served a Federal Trade Commissioner from 1994 to 1997 and, before that, as assistant to the president and secretary to the cabinet, in which capacity she was the primary point of contact for the 20-member cabinet, according to her Hogan & Hartson biography. In July 2008, Varney authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing legislation that would prohibit binding mandatory arbitration, a regime in which businesses require consumers to agree to allow any future disputes to be settled by an arbitration firm chosen by the business. President-elect Obama has co-sponsored legislation to prohibit employers from subjecting veterans to binding mandatory arbitration.