Hon. Steven G. Bradbury

Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; Former General Counsel, Department of Transportation

Steve Bradbury served in the Trump Administration as the Senate-confirmed General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) from November 2017 until January 2021. As the Department’s chief legal officer, he oversaw all of DOT’s rulemaking and enforcement actions. During his time at DOT, he also served as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Transportation and briefly as the Acting Secretary of Transportation.

 During the Bush 43 Administration, Mr. Bradbury served as the Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. As the head of OLC from 2005 to 2009, he advised the President and the Executive Branch on a wide range of constitutional and statutory questions and received the Edmund J. Randolph Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, among other awards.

 Aside from government service, Mr. Bradbury has been a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and at Dechert LLP in Washington, D.C., where his practice focused on regulatory enforcement and investigations, rulemaking and judicial review of agency actions, appellate cases, and antitrust matters.

 Mr. Bradbury clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court and for Judge James L. Buckley on the D.C. Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Michigan Law School and received his B.A. from Stanford University. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, and lives with his wife in Tysons, Virginia.

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