DOD DEPT'Y INSPECTOR GENERAL HOLDS WISCONSIN LAW LICENSE

LYNNE M. HALBROOKS IS MARQUETTE LAW GRAD

Minnesota Native with Wisconsin Law License

Holds Important Pentagon Post

Far Cry from Managing Legal Affairs of Senate Barber Shop and Restaurants

LYNNE M. HALBROOKS

PRINCIPAL DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE,

WISCONSIN LAW LICENSE #1000501

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com 

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

Lynne M. Halbrooks, a Marquette University Law School ['88] graduate, is possibly the highest-ranking Wisconsin-licensed attorney in Federal government service today.

Since August 2nd, 2009, she has served as the Principal Deputy Inspector General for the Department of Defense, which places her very, very high up on the department's organizational chart, answerable only to the Inspector General and the Secretary of Defense.

She oversees such vital areas as Audits, Congressional Liaison, Investigations, Policy, Intelligence, Administration, and Special Plans & Operations for the Pentagon.

The mission of the Inspector General is to:

Promote integrity, accountability, and improvement of Department of Defense personnel, programs and operations to support the Department's mission and serve the public interest.

FORMER HON. DAVID HALBROOKS 

[NO RELATION]

Lynne Halbrooks, (who is no relation to the distinguished former Milwaukee Municipal Court jurist and lawyer David Halbrooks), holds Wisconsin Bar Association license 1000501, issued on May 23rd, 1988, which remains active and unblemished to this date, according to court records.
 
From 1992 to 1994, as Lynne M. Solien, (her maiden name) she worked at the Milwaukee office of Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP, mostly representing defendants in personal injury cases. She had previously clerked in the offices of Justice John E. Simonett of the Minnesota Supreme Court in her home state, shortly after her graduation from Marquette.
While serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, she spent some time in Washington working in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and has remained in the Nation's capital since then.

In May, 2003, Atty. Halbrooks served as General Counsel to the Sergeant of Arms of the United States Senate William H. Pickle, until she was selected as Pickle's Deputy Sergeant at Arms in 2005. This position required her to assume legal leadership for a host of responsibilities, including all Senate computers, furniture, beauty shops, barber shops and restaurants.

This was during the time that Sen. Rick Santorum led the fight against the fiscal laxity of the Barber Shop, as he testified in a statement in January, 2005:

I also took on some other “sacred cows”  – things like reforming the Senate barber shop and restaurant. Those of you who have been here for some time know that the prices at the barber shop and restaurant are not what they were when I came to the United States Senate in 1995, and that is because when I came to the Senate these institutions were being subsidized by the taxpayers. Now I still get some looks and occasional comments from my colleagues about the fact that the prices at the barber shop and restaurant are higher than they used to be, but I am not deterred.

The  U.S. Senate restaurants lost over $18 million since 1993, or about the time Ms. Halbrooks moved to Washington. The Senate restaurant service, privatized since 1980, has been reformed, according to reports, but not until Ms. Halbrooks left the Deputy job to serve as Republican Liaison to the new Sergeant at Arms.
This was during the great January 2007 change of power in the Senate, when Pickle was ousted by Democrat Terrance Gainer, who continues in that position. 

Milwaukeeworld salutes our Jesuit-trained public servant.