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Ann O’Leary is a political advisor, attorney, and nonprofit leader who served on the Public Advocates Board of Governors from 2005-2011. She grew up in a small town in Maine, where her father was a labor union leader, and her mother was a social worker. As she relates in her March 22, 2021 post, My Next Chapter, which is the primary source of this story, Ann was inspired to a life of service by her parents, as well as by the election of President Bill Clinton, the fight to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, and her commitment to universal health care. 

After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Ann moved to Washington, DC where she got a job offer, one year out of college, to work in the White House as an aide. “When I called my Dad to tell him the news, he paused so long that I thought he was disappointed, until I realized he was choking back tears,” she writes. Her father had been the first to attend college in his family, her mother had been the first woman to attend college from hers. 

Ann served for 6 years on the Public Advocates Board of Governors. During Ann’s tenure, Public Advocates brought two key lawsuits to improve public transit services and affordable housing for East Bay residents. In Darensburg v. MTC, Public Advocates challenged the funding practices of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which prioritized funds for rail service expansion for higher-income commuters while bus service for low-income riders continued to decline; and in Urban Habitat v. City of Pleasanton, Public Advocates challenged Pleasanton’s housing cap, which reduced the availability of affordable housing opportunities for low-income people who commuted long distances to work in the city but could not afford to live there.

Serving for 6 years on the Public Advocates Board of Governors is only one part of Ann’s long and distinguished career, which includes, for example, serving as Chief of Staff to Governor Newsom. In her career Ann has served as:

• Senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign
• Co-executive director of the Clinton-Kaine transition project
• Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco
• Co-founder of Opportunity Institute, with fellow PA alum Christopher Edley Jr. 
• Board member at KQED, San Francisco
• Partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
• Executive director of UC Berkeley Law’s Center on Health, Economic, and Family Security
• Lecturer-in-law at UC Berkeley Law
• Legislative director for Senator Hillary Clinton
• Policy advisor with the White House domestic policy council under President Bill Clinton and
• Chief of Staff to the Governor Gavin Newsom of California.

It was as a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP that Ann got the call to serve as Chief of Staff to Governor Newsom. On November 9, 2018, three days after Election Day, the Governor announced Ann’s appointment. The next two years were a time of challenge for California’s people and leadership, including the worst wildfires in the state’s history, the bankruptcy of one of the major investor-owned utilities, a strained electricity grid, statewide teacher strikes, the response to COVID-19’s impact on Californian’s lives, public health and the economy; and the continued injustice of police killing Black people.

While serving as Chief of Staff to Governor Newsom, Ann:

• Co-chaired the Governor’s task force on business and jobs recovery
• Chaired the Governor’s strike team on energy and wildfires
• Led the development and implementation of an important aspect of the Governor’s agenda: to expand opportunity and affordability in California, including expansions of California’s Earned Income Tax Credit and Paid Family Leave.

In January 2022, Ann stepped down from her position as Chief of Staff. In My Next Chapter she writes, “I was given the gift of slowing down and thinking about what I wanted to do next. How would I choose to live my life, doing the work I love, continuing to positively impact the biggest issues of our day, and be present for my children?”

Now

Today, Ann is a partner at Jenner & Block, a law firm known for its civil rights and pro bono work. Jenner lawyers have represented Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action group and a number of Black churches in Georgia who have been challenging aspects of the state’s election laws related to its 2018 election. The firm also worked on a voting rights challenge in Florida last fall and recently defended the Voting Rights Act at the U.S. Supreme Court. Ann co-chairs Jenner & Block’s Government Controversies and Public Policy litigation practice and maintains a robust pro bono practice where she continues her lifelong commitment to fight for gender and racial equity, including representing the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Alliance for Asian American Justice. Ann also continues to develop the next generation of legal experts at Stanford Law with her courses, including “The Law and Policy of America’s Safety Net.”

Ten years after stepping down from Public Advocates Board of Governors, Ann O’Leary is motivated and committed, as she says in her post, “to continually trying to improve the social safety net in America, call out our need for real mental health care, and open doors of opportunity and inclusion for others.”