COLLECTION FINDING AID



KENNETH A. LAZARUS FILES, 1974-77

Associate Counsel to the President
Office of Council to the President



CONTENTS

Summary Description | Biographical Information | Introduction | Series Descriptions | Container List

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Material on advice given to the President, White House staff, and First Family on legal matters, domestic and foreign issues, presidential powers, and personnel matters. Prominent topics include legislation, White House liaison with agencies and departments of the federal government, presidential appointments, including the Supreme Court nomination of Justice John Paul Stevens, executive-legislative relations, and White House administration. The collection contains much material created or received by Dudley Chapman, Barry Roth, Bobbie Greene Kilberg, Roderick Hills, William Casselman, and Jay French.

QUANTITY
 23.6 linear feet (ca. 47,200 pages)

DONOR
 Gerald R. Ford (accession numbers 77-9, 77-10, and 81-29)

ACCESS
 Open. Some items may be temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).

COPYRIGHT
 Gerald R. Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

Prepared by: Geir Gundersen, May 1994
[s:\bin\findaid\lazarus, kenneth - files.doc]

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Kenneth A. Lazarus


March 10, 1942 - Born, Passaic, New Jersey

1964 - University of Dayton (B.A.)

1967 - University of Notre Dame Law School (J.D.)

1967-69 - Staff Assistant, Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Justice

1969-71 - Trial Attorney, Tax Division, Department of Justice

1971 - George Washington University Law School (LL.M.)

1971-73 - Associate Counsel, United States Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures

1973-74 - Minority Counsel, United States Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures

1974 - Minority Counsel, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

1974-1977 - Associate Counsel to the President

1977-- Partner, law firm of Ward, Lazarus, and Grow, Washington, DC

INTRODUCTION

Kenneth Lazarus joined the White House staff in December 1974 as Associate Counsel to the President. Lazarus reviewed a wide array of issues and topics for possible legal problems. He facilitated, evaluated, or assessed substantive policy, legislative programs, enrolled bills, proclamations, executive orders, agency actions where law required presidential approval, executive privilege, and staff dealings with the Justice Department. He also handled conflict of interest and other standards of conduct with respect to White House staff and presidential appointees, Hatch Act and Civil Service questions affecting the White House, foreign and domestic gifts to the President, White House authorization bills and budget matters, and election questions.

Scope And Content of the Collection
The Files chronicle the numerous legal services provided by Lazarus and other attorneys in the Counsel's Office. At its inception, the collection served as the working files of Lazarus and his colleagues as they often shared or cooperated on tasks. Included are documents produced and received by Dudley Chapman, Bobbie Greene Kilberg, Barry Roth, Jay French, Roderick Hills, William Casselman, and Philip Areeda. With time, each individual created their own files as their specific roles evolved and as they were assigned special projects. However, Lazarus continued to add materials to this collection and assumed practical ownership of its contents.

A Subject File and an Office Chronological File comprise the collection. The Subject File, the major portion of the collection, is organized into categories based on the White House Central Files Subject File. The Subject File addresses a wide array of topics and includes major segments on legislation, the organizations of the federal government, and personnel management.

The Counsel's Office provided analyses and commentary on most legislative activity during the Ford administration. Included are drafts and analyses of bills and resolutions, staff commentary, agency input, and decision memoranda prepared for the President. There is also substantial material on executive-legislative relations, particularly "legislative encroachment" and the President’s veto power, and White House efforts to lobby Congress.

The Counsel's Office also served as the primary White House liaison with regulatory agencies and departments of the federal government. There is information on a multitude of agencies, commissions, and committees encompassing the three branches of government, including such diverse organizations as the Department of Agriculture, the Office of Telecommunications Policy, and the Commission on the Revision of the Federal Court Appellate System (the Hruska Commission).

In addition, the Counsel's Office played a key role in personnel management, particularly in regard to background and investigative checks of prospective White House staff and presidential appointees. The staff attorneys, and Ken Lazarus in particular, reviewed and commented on recommendations from the Presidential Personnel Office, ensured that all White House staff and presidential appointees had the proper clearances, and advised individuals about possible problems concerning standards of conduct, conflict of interest, or the Hatch Act. Of particular interest is the material on the Supreme Court nomination of Justice John Paul Stevens, including background information on the confirmation process, Justice Stevens, and his past decisions and statements.

The collection is also a good source of information on a multitude of other topics. For example, there is material on trade issues such as the Arab economic boycott of firms dealing with Israel, oil import fees, and improper corporate payments to foreign officials. There are files on equality and sex discrimination, in particular the implementation of Title IX (which prohibited sexual discrimination in federally assisted education programs). Other topics include the administration of the White House, domestic and foreign gifts to the President, pardons, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, public relations, and executive privilege.

The second part of the collection, the Office Chronological File, consists of carbon copies of correspondence and memoranda created in the Counsel's Office.

Related Materials (May 1994)
Closely related material is located in the Counsel's Office staff files of Philip Buchen, Edward Schmults, Bobbie Greene Kilberg, and Jay French. Other collections from the Counsel's Office are unprocessed. Another important source of related material is the White House Central Files Subject File, in particular subject categories FG: Federal Government - Organizations, JL: Judicial - Legal Matters, LE: Legislation, and PE: Personnel Management. Other related collections are located in the White House Records Office: Enrolled Bill Case Files and the unprocessed files of the Presidential Personnel Office.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Subject File, 1974-77.  (Boxes 1-55, 22.0 linear feet)
Memoranda, reports, briefing papers, congressional and draft bills, correspondence, notes, messages, proclamations, executive orders, testimony, legal opinions, court motions and orders, press releases, and clippings. The materials concern legal analyses and commentary provided on a wide of variety of issues. The major topics are legislation, the organizations of the federal government, and personnel management, including the nomination of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Other topics include inflation, executive privilege, standards of conduct, conflict of interest, the Hatch Act, the Kennedy assassination, the Presidential clemency program, the pardons of Iva Toguri (Tokyo Rose) and Otto Kerner, domestic and foreign gifts to the President, equality and sex discrimination (in particular Title IX), no-fault insurance, legislative encroachment, vetoes, the revocation of Executive Order 9066 (which had established the World War II Japanese-American internment camps), political affairs, personal matters of the President and First Family, public relations, trade, Arab economic boycott of Israel, oil import fees, improper corporate payments abroad, transportation policy, and administration of the White House.

Arranged by subject code and thereunder alphabetically.

View container list for this series

Office Chronological File, 1974-76. (Boxes 56-59, 1.6 linear feet)
Carbon copies of memoranda and correspondence generated by many attorneys in the Counsel's Office from August 1974 through December 1976. The folder for January 1977 is located in the files of Bobbie Greene Kilberg.

Arranged chronologically.

View container list for this series

CONTAINER LIST

Box 1 - Subject File

Box 2 - Subject File

Box 3 - Subject File

Box 4 - Subject File

Box 5 - Subject File

Box 6 - Subject File

Box 7 - Subject File

Box 8 - Subject File

Box 9 - Subject File

Box 10 - Subject File

Box 11 - Subject File

Box 12 - Subject File

Box 13 - Subject File

Box 14 - Subject File

Box 15 - Subject File

Box 16 - Subject File

Box 17 - Subject File

Box 18 - Subject File

Box 19 - Subject File

Box 20 - Subject File

Box 21 - Subject File

Box 22 - Subject File

Box 23 - Subject File

Box 24 - Subject File

Box 25 - Subject File

Box 26 - Subject File

Box 27 - Subject File

Box 28 - Subject File

Box 29 - Subject File

Box 30 - Subject File

Box 31 - Subject File

Box 32 - Subject File

Box 33 - Subject File

Box 34 - Subject File

Box 35 - Subject File

Box 36 - Subject File

Box 37 - Subject File

Box 38 - Subject File

Box 39 - Subject File

Box 40 - Subject File

Box 41 - Subject File

Box 42 - Subject File

Box 43 - Subject File

Box 44 - Subject File

Box 45 - Subject File

Box 46 - Subject File

Box 47 - Subject File

Box 48 - Subject File

Box 49 - Subject File

Box 50 - Subject File

Box 51 - Subject File

Box 52 - Subject File

Box 53 - Subject File

Box 54 - Subject File

Box 55 - Subject File

Box 56 - Office Chronological File

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

Box 57 - Office Chronological File

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

Box 58 - Office Chronological File

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)

Box 59 - Office Chronological File

(Note: Folders with the titles struck through are not yet open to research, but can be added to the Library's review queue.)