Ethical Standards in the Public Sector

Jennifer G. Rodgers is a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, an adjunct professor of clinical law at the NYU School of Law, and a legal analyst for CNN. She teaches, writes, and speaks all over the world about government ethics, public corruption, and sports corruption. Jennifer is a member of both the Task Force on the Rule of Law and the Federal Courts Committee at the New York City Bar Association, and is the former chair of the association’s Government Ethics Committee. She also serves on the Independent Review Panel for Conviction Review for Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. From 2013 to 2018, Jennifer was the executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School (CAPI), which works to improve the capacity of public offices to identify, deter, and combat corruption. Between 2000 and 2013, Jennifer worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she served in numerous capacities, including as a deputy chief appellate attorney, the chief of the Organized Crime Unit, and a chief of the General Crimes Unit. Jennifer also worked as an associate in the litigation department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and as a law clerk to former U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Weigel in the Northern District of California. Jennifer graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Evan A. Davis resides in New York City and is a senior counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1969 where he was editor in chief of the Columbia Law Review. He clerked for Harold Leventhal on the D.C. Circuit and Potter Stewart on the Supreme Court. Following his clerkships, he was appointed the first general counsel of the New York City budget division and later made the chief of the Consumer Protection Division in the city’s Law Department. In 1974, he joined the Impeachment Inquiry staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. He practiced law as a Cleary litigation associate and then partner from 1975 to 1985 when he was appointed counsel to Governor Mario Cuomo. He returned to Cleary in 1991 and later served as president of the New York City Bar and vice chair of the Columbia University Trustees. He also chaired the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Public Education and served on the New York State Bar’s Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct when it revised the ethics rules for lawyers. He currently serves as manager of the Committee to Reform the State Constitution, which was initially established as a committee to advocate for calling a state constitutional convention. Strengthening enforcement of the state’s Code of Ethics has been a continuing priority for the group.