Since joining the firm in 1969, Harry McPherson has represented and counseled businesses, nonprofit organizations, foreign governments and individuals on a wide range of matters before the executive branch, Congress, regulatory agencies and other public bodies.

Mr. McPherson served as counsel, then special counsel, to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969. Previously he had served as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs; as deputy under-secretary of the Army for international affairs; and as a member of the Department of the Army Secretariat. He was counsel to the US Senate Democratic Policy Committee, the key legislative policy organ on the Senate side for the Democratic Party.

In 2007, Washingtonian magazine named him to its list of Washington's top lawyers.

In September 2008, American Lawyer magazine honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring his distinctive career, history-making accomplishments and lifelong record of public service to the greater good. 

Significant Accomplishments

• Managed and achieved passage of legislation that for the first time privatized a major government-sponsored enterprise.
• Representation of the interests of more than 2,500 Czech-Americans in obtaining compensation for the seizure of their assets by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. The final settlement was for over 80 cents on the dollar.
• Representation of oil and gas wildcatters and developers from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana in tax legislative battles.
• Representation of one of the major television networks in the successful struggle to repeal the "financial interest and syndication" rule -- the so-called "fin-syn" rule.
• Helped one of the nation's largest foundations work out a plan for the orderly distribution of its assets and earnings, avoiding major IRS penalties.
• Representation of the principal mutual fund association.
• Counsels a manufacturer and a bank in regulatory and tax matters arising from their overseas operations.
• Counsels and represents several foreign governments in Washington.

ADMISSIONS

• District of Columbia

Adhésions

• General counsel to the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts from 1976 to 1991, having previously been vice chairman of the Center.
• President of the Federal City Council, a civic organization of business, professional and cultural leaders in Washington, DC (1983-1988)
• President, Economic Club of Washington, DC (1992-1999)
• Appointed by President Carter to the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.
• Appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as vice chairman of the United States Cultural and Trade Center Commission, which planned a 600,000 sq.ft. facility in the Federal Triangle.
• Appointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton, as a member of the 1993 US Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
• Member board of trustees, the Woodrow Wilson International Center, Smithsonian Institution (1969-1974)
• Board of Directors, Council on Foreign Relations (1974-1977)
• Chairman, Democratic Advisory Council of Elected Officials Task Force on Democratic Policy (1974-1976)
• Editorial Advisory Board, Foreign Affairs and the Publications Committee of The Public Interest.

Publications

Author of A Political Education, first published by Atlantic-Little Brown in 1972, republished by Houghton Mifflin in 1988, and published again in 1995 by the University of Texas Press. Mr. McPherson has written many articles on foreign policy and political issues for The New York Times, Washington Post and other publications.