Bio

Ed Pagano joined Akin Gump after serving in the Obama administration as Senate Liaison and Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. In this role, Ed was responsible for managing the Senate Legislative Affairs Office and charged with advancing the president’s legislative agenda and promoting his priorities on Capitol Hill. He coordinated the administration’s legislative strategy on Senate action concerning issues that included patent reform, immigration reform, the Affordable Care Act, the Violence Against Women Act, reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), gun violence prevention and judicial nominations. He was a member of the White House privacy and FISA working groups. Before joining the White House in 2012, Ed worked for nearly two decades with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), both for the senator’s office and the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Leahy. This included serving as Sen. Leahy’s chief of staff, managing the senator’s offices in Washington and Vermont and overseeing the senator’s work on the Judiciary, Agriculture and Appropriations committees. During that time, he advised Sen. Leahy on legislation—such as the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, the first major reform of the patent system in 60 years—and Supreme Court hearings and confirmations, including those of Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan. Prior to becoming Sen. Leahy’s chief of staff, Ed served as his senior counsel on the Judiciary Committee, focusing on economic and criminal justice legislation, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, as well as antitrust issues and data breach legislation. Ed earlier worked as legislative counsel for Sen. Leahy, monitoring legislative developments and implementing plans on tax and commerce legislation, as well as coordinating economic development outreach in Vermont.