Judge Carolyn N. Lerner has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School since 2018. She was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Biden in 2022. Judge Lerner joined the court after serving for four years as the Chief Circuit Mediator for the federal courts in the D.C. Circuit. In 2011, Judge Lerner was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent law enforcement agency whose mission is to enforce the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act and protect federal employees from prohibited personnel practices. She served in that position until 2017.From 1997 until 2011, Judge Lerner was a partner in an employment and civil rights firm, Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman. While at the firm, she served as a federal court-appointed Special Master in a sexual harassment and retaliation class action.
Judge Lerner earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden public interest scholar. After law school, she clerked for Chief United States District Court Judge Julian Abele Cook, Jr., in the Eastern District of Michigan. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the honors college at the University of Michigan, and as an undergraduate was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar.
