U.S. MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD, GENERAL COUNSEL
Jennifer Kiessling

A young lawyer who attended the University of California Hastings College of Law after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of California in Los Angeles, Jennifer Kiessling participated in one of UCLA’s overseas programs at Meiji Gakuin University in Japan, and she also attended Exeter University in England. Before earning her juris doctor degree, Jennifer majored in political science with honors, and in Japan she studied conflict and dispute resolution. The winner of a Thurgood Marshall Legal Scholarship, Jennifer worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Office in Yokosuku, Japan and the U.S. Hastings Law Library in San Francisco. She was a law clerk at the legal offices of Olivia Paniagua, also in San Francisco, and a legal intern for Judge James Lawrence King in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in Miami. In Washington, D.C., Jennifer worked at the U.S. Department of Justice within the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training Program where she researched patent law in China and Thailand. She was a legal assistant at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and at Younesi & Yoss, LLP. Jennifer worked at the Multidoor Dispute Resolution Center for the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., at Clausman Legal Staffing in Los Angeles where she was an executive assistant to the senior vice president, and at I Have a Dream Foundation in Pasadena, California. Finally, Jennifer contributed to America’s Promise as a fellow/mentor coordinator, and she belonged to the National Golden Key Honor Society. Jennifer speaks Spanish, and she traveled throughout Central and Eastern Europe; North, South, and East Asia; and Latin America. 

In mid November of 2005, this extremely well-qualified young woman applied to the Washington Internship Program where she joined other attorneys placed by WIP (including Blaine Messina from Louisiana and Cory Bliss from New York). Jennifer requested a legal position in the General Council’s office of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board where WIP successfully placed her after first offering Jennifer a position in private practice with the law office of O’Toole, Rothwell, Nassau & Steinbach, which agreed to pay her $17.50 an hour, but negotiations over salary broke down just when Jennifer was accepted at the internship where she ultimately worked. Because Jennifer and her husband John had traveled extensively, the couple invited a WIP intern from abroad to live in their home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Yu-Jin Jeon, from Kyungpook National University in South Korea, accepted this gracious offer and rented a room with the Kiesslings. (For pictures of Jennifer, John, and Yu-Jin, look under the upcoming description of Yu- Jin’s internship at Compcierge USA.) Jennifer’s paper is below: 
         
“As a legal extern, I worked twenty hours a week at the United States Merit Protection Board where I analyzed federal cases and administrative policy involving: suspension for more than fourteen days, reductions in grade or pay, furloughs of thirty days or less, appeals to the Office of Personnel Management regarding retirement, performance-based removal, denials within grade salary increases, reduction in force (RIF), OPM employment practices, denial or restoration of employment rights, and certain terminations of probationary employees. I researched legislation affecting merit-systems principles using Westlaw, summarized proposed bills affecting the merit system and whistle-blowing violations, communicated with the office of General Counsel, and applied legal reasoning to the analysis of memoranda. I attended weekly meetings of the General Counsel and briefed attorneys on the progress of assigned work. In addition, I participated in weekly legal conferences like the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Update at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). I attended oral arguments at the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Federal Circuit Court. I wrote legal synopses of oral arguments in National Treasury Employees, Et All Versus Michael Chertoff (director of Homeland Security). I outlined the legal basis of MSPB’s authority to mitigate penalties and appeal procedures and also drafted legal memorandum on issues like the Hatch Act relative to mixed-case appeals and E-filing. I established the legal conclusion that there is a rebuttable presumption of receipt upon delivery through electronic case-filing systems based on a board decision in Lima Versus Department of the Air Force. I recommended use of registered e-mails through virtual companies to demonstrate whether documents that were sent had been received.”

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